Lauren the Echidna Volume 3
by WhiteFireEclipse
Summary: 3rd and final volume of Lauren the Echidna! Enjoy! :3
1. Chapter 1

**Lauren the Echidna Volume 3**

**Chapter 1**

**Back To School**

**My eyes widened to see where I was. Brown desks with marker drawings all over them, blue desks mixed in with the brown ones, and the teacher's desk sitting beside me. I blinked as I looked around, wondering what I was doing here...again. A moment later, I heard my name being called from the front of the room.**

**"Lauren Berry. Please pay attention and don't fall asleep during class again." Of course this wasn't like me, falling asleep in class. Wait...class?! I was speechless. I couldn't make it out. I...was in school? Last thing I saw was my son, Frank, training with his staff. Now...I'm back in my senior year?**

**"W-Wait...I'm back in school?" Everyone looked to me with confusion, especially the boy sitting in front of me, Shelby, who was always the guy with a smart-ass attitude, but was always making fun of everything he could think of.**

**"Did ya hit your head or somethin', Laruen? Because you seriously got some kind of delusional problem." He smirked with laughter and turned back around. My eyes narrowed a bit, still confused as to why I was here, but I, out of natural reaction, raised my hand. The teacher, in this case was named Mrs. Bowen, also the administrator of the school, called on me.**

**"Yes, Lauren?"**

**"M-May I be excused...I don't know if I feel too good."**

**"Sure, honey. Go on, but be quick. We're about to start chapel in a few minutes." **

**"Okay, then." I got up out of my seat and walked out of the room. I couldn't believe this. How could I be sent back to my senior year? It's already been over 16 years since I met Knuckles, but...how could it...**

**"That's it..." My eyes widened as I stopped in the hallway where all the backpacks were placed. "Mephiles...he did this...but why is it that I have my memory? Hm...I need more answers...but...if what happened that day happens again...then I'll be able to turn this around." I said to myself while the coast was clear. I looked around for anyone to be roaming the hallways, and ran through the short hallway, through the cafeteria, and finally out the door. I headed down the steps and down to the gym where we would usually have chapel.**

**"Hm? Lauren, what are you doing down here so early? It's not time for Chapel yet." Said a woman about my height, short brown hair and was always wearing a knee-length skirt.**

**"I know Mrs. Morton, but I kinda have a bit of a situation..." I said walking up to her.**

**"What kind of situation?" She tilted her head like any other third grade teacher would do.**

**"Um...a little hard to explain but...I think something will happen during Chapel today." I panted a bit from running, but also because of me freaking out.**

**"Like what-" It was no longer that a large thud was heard outside, shaking the whole gym, and almost making Mrs. Morton lose balance. I quickly let her hold onto me as she was in high heels and was already off balance, and I looked outside the door with my eyes wide.**

**"Oh no...Mrs. Morton, you need to get out of here!" I let her go after she stood and ran out the door.**

**"But what's going on, Lauren?!" She yelled as I was already outside. I looked up too see the worst yet...**

**That same black hedgehog who had ruined my life twice, was about to ruin it for good. His black quills had now become dark purple tipped quills, each of them giving off a very dark aura, almost as dark as a black hole. I recognized this form from my first battle with him.**

**"The Black Hole form...again?! YOU THINK YOU CAN TRICK ME WITH THAT MEPHILES?!"**

**"Hmhmhmhm...I have no use in tricking you, Berry. I only serve to destroy you..." His hand raised to the air, ablazed with dark purple spikes around the tips of his fingers. My eyes widened. **

**Was this the actual end of me? The end of Lauren the Echidna? Or was it just the beginning for the new future...?**


	2. Chapter 2

Lauren the Echidna Volume 3

Chapter 2

Sweet Dreams Are...

I stared up at Mephiles' evil green eyes as he laughed. He launched a few dark purple chaos spikes down toward me. My eyes widened as I knew I couldn't dodge them as easily as I could back when I was an echidna. I quickly dove to the side, still having some skill in martial arts and quick thinking, but also dove to a point where I couldn't dive no more, causing me to hit one knee gasping for breath.

"Gah...wh-what do you want from me, Mephiles..." I glanced up toward him with my eyes slightly narrowed, and my hair in my face covering the sweat.

"Don't you know, Berry...hmhmhm...I'm here to rid you of this world...you remember in that dream of yours...it all felt so real didn't it?" He smirked, as he still had a mouth from what I remember, then flickered over behind me, placing a hand on my cheek making me freeze in place. My eyes widened and I flinched to the cold touch after a second and stepped back.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about Mephiles...that was no dream, you guys were all there! I have a family now!" I shouted to him. He did nothing but frown, walking up to me again.

"None of that was real my dear Lauren...hmhmhm...you were only dreaming...except that...I entered that dream and ruined for you completely. That's how I like it." He smirked again and charged another purple chaos spike, and was about to fire. I stepped back more, finally collapsing to the ground on my back as he approached me. I gasped in this sudden fear, knowing I couldn't do anything about it the time.

"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HER!" That voice sounded...so familiar. I looked to Mephiles' left and gasped.

"Austin...NO DON'T!" But it was already too late. One of my friends, Austin had attempted to tackle Mephiles to the ground, but the second he touched him, Mephiles smirks and grabs Austin by the throat.

"Hmhmhm...my my, the girl's crush attempting to save her hmm? You're making a big mistake..." He smirked more and throws him back onto the ground, leaving Austin grunting in pain as he would again get up onto his feet.

"AUSTIN! Mephiles you get off him!" I ran up to Mephiles, suddenly landing a hard punch onto the back of his head, actually leaving a bruise that he grunted from.

"Gah...why you little bastard..." He turns around and grabs my throat doing the same to me as he did Austin. I grunted in pain and started to get up, but Mephiles pinned me down with his foot on my chest.

"Ngh! Gaaah...get off me!!" My shouting didn't do much, but as I struggled to get off of him, Mephiles suddenly stops and looks down to me with a frown.

"When there is no other people around, I will take you away and destroy you personally. You had better be prepared for your own demise, Lauren Berry. Hmhmhm..." He then disappeared in a dark purple flash, leaving me to get up onto my knees and sit there. Several people that came out of the school building and gym had ran up to me to help. I stood and thanked my classmates, but also looked to where Mephiles had disappeared. Looking around the school grounds, I notice that a large robotic snake was found in the middle of the soccer field.

I didn't waste any time getting there. Searching through the cockpit of the monster, I realize that it's empty. No captain or anything. Not even Dr. Eggman of all people. I narrowed my eyes and looked around frantically for anyone that I recognized. No one was around except for firemen and policemen that had gotten there a short time later. My eyes then drooped and I continued to search, suddenly finding myself inside the forests behind my school. Pushing every branch and leafy pile out of my way, due to it being autumn, I looked around frantically for anything that I recognized. Come to my attention, I find three figures collapsed on the ground, all out cold.

I ran up to them to see that it was none other than Team Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna...all there unconscious for some strange reason. I kneeled down to the blue blur, him being the first one in sight and budged him. After a few minutes of waiting, the hedgehog finally woke up to see me holding him up in his arms.

"Hey, you alright?" I smiled, finally glad to see his familiar face in view.

"Um...yeah, couldn't be better. Who are ya, kid?" He asked as he stood up, rubbing his head. I knew for a second that he didn't know who I was because nothing I remember didn't happen. I just sighed and told him.

"My name is Lauren Berry...I'm a student at that school. What happened to you and your friends?" I asked.

"Hmm...all I remember is fighting Dr. Egghead and that serpent robot." He looked to Tails and walked up to him, budging him as he finally woke up.

"Unh...what happened? Huh?" Tails looked to me and I just nodded to him, scratching the back of my head. It was then I found myself staring at Knuckles, who was also waking up from his unconsciousness. I walked up and placed my hand out, offering to help him up. He blinked and his eyes narrowed at first, but saw something in my eyes that told him it was okay. Knuckles grabbed my hand and stood up, grunting and holding his head.

"You alright..."

"Yeah fine..." He glanced at me and then looked to Sonic. His signature smirk wasn't there this time, as he saw something different between me and Knuckles.

"Do you and him...know each other somehow?" I hesitated to answer this, considering my whole 'dream' about them all and what all happened in over twenty years.

"...No. I'm a fan of you guys but I...honestly don't know any of you personally."

"I thought all fans would be excited to see their favorite heroes." Said Knuckles with a frown on his face.

"I would be...but after what I've been through...I have no reason to be excited. Sonic...could you do me a favor?" I looked to him.

"Sure, kid. Tails, Knuckles, you two should check out that robot. Make sure Eggman isn't up to anything with the remains of it." As the fox and echidna ran off to the robot, Sonic grabbed both my arms and pulled me down over onto his back.

"Where to, kid?"

"Okay first of all, my name is Lauren. Second of all...I need you to take me to Eggman's base...wherever it is on this planet...take me to it."

"Any reason why?" He quickly sped off at almost one hundred miles an hour, with me on his back.

"Whoa!...Okay, I just need to check something out. See if my own theory is true about something..."

"Whatever you say..." He kept running, soon hitting a large gap somewhere with a few trees surrounding the edges. Onward into the gap was a large metallic covered base out in the open.

"My question is how in the world could no one see this out here?" I asked myself as I crossed my arms.

"I dunno. But call for me when you're done here. Besides, this place is already abandoned." He smirked and gave me a thumbs up, then sped off at the speed of sound. I nodded and walked inside the base where Eggman was originally making his experiments and stopped to see the room I was transformed.

My eyes widened to see what I really didn't want to. The machine that had transformed me in my so called dream...

"Not here...? B-But...I know it was here...I saw it...how would it be..."

"Gone?" Said the same familiar voice from minutes ago. I turned around and blinked, seeing it was Sonic, jumping a bit to his sudden appearance.

"Y-Yeah..."

"That thing's been gone for quite sometime. After Eggman fiddled with it he couldn't get it to work. He said he needed...some key component for it to work." I blinked and looked down, eyes drooping to what I thought was to happen to me just like my dream.

"What's up with you, Lauren?"

"...Where's that machine now?"

"Um...somewhere in Africa now...Egghead moved it there for another purpose."

"...I'm gonna need another favor."

"You...want me to take you there?" He smirked with delight. "I like the way you think kid. One trip around the world coming up." He grabbed my arms again and pulled me down. Another few seconds later, we had arrived deep in the dense forests of Africa. I looked toward the base that was placed there, but was also empty for the time being. It gave me the chance to take a look at it. I went inside with Sonic by my side and we came up to the same machine I saw in the dream. My eyes narrowed as I clearly knew what I had to do to make things right.

My feet left the ground as I lept into the machine and turned it on from the inside. Sonic's eyes widened and he shouted,

"Wait, what are you doing?!" My eyes narrowed as the hatch doors closed and the machine activated.

"Saving my future..."


	3. Chapter 3

Lauren the Echidna Volume 3

Chapter 3

Jamie Dawn

It was nothing more than a deja-vu for me in this world. The echidna that I had become in the dream, finally happened to me in real life. I walked out in nothing more than the same blue jeans, black Trix Cereal hoodie, and white tennis shoes, still in my human form. I just crossed my arms and smirked.

"I think it's time I got some help. Maybe others in this world will be willing to help me out in defeating Mephiles once and for all."

"Huh? Mephiles? We defeated him over a year ago. How is he still alive?!"

"Well, apparently he's back. And I have to stop him." I said walking ahead, a small orange aura coming off of me as I walked by Sonic. He grabs my arm and stops me,

"Hold on now, Lauren. You don't even know what he's planning."

"Yes, I do actually. He's planning to release the power of Solaris again...but from inside me..." Sonic's eyes widened to this and let go of my arm.

"No way...we got rid of Solaris!"

"Yeah, well he's back AGAIN! AND THROUGH ME! If I'm to get help I'm gonna need a way to...huh...that's it...Sonic, do you have a Chaos Emerald on you?" I asked him as I turned to him.

Sonic's expression turned from concern to anger. He stepped a step back and crossed his arms with his eyes narrowed.

"How do I know you're not up to something?"

"Sonic, you're the last one I know that would expect someone to be up to something. That's Knuckles' job." My eyes narrowed as well. "Hmph...I'll find one myself. If you don't believe me I'll show you." I stormed off out of the base and was now running through the forest behind that base to get back to my hometown.

My feet left the ground in another instant, causing them to become black and dark red tennis shoes with a wind design on them, a dark red hoodie and black baggy cargo pants with red trim. My fur was the same bright yellow color, bangs covering my face with a pair of dark purple glasses in front of my eyes, since I had my actual glasses on at the time. I smirked again, knowing where to go first, running faster than Sonic ever could in an instant. Sonic's eyes widened more to see such speed, and how the hell I could use that speed in the first place.

"Hm...I gotta find Tails and Knuckles." Sonic said to himself as he ran off back toward my school, where many cop cars and firefighter trucks were found, cleaning up the mess that Mephiles left behind.

"I know I'll find the right ones to help me...and there's only one way to start..." I smiled a bit, realizing the closest person near me.

After a few minutes I arrived at a long driveway in the middle of many trees. I walked down the driveway, looking to my left for the house I was after. Finally stopping, I come to a somewhat large house that was white/tan with a light colored roof. My frown came to a smile, seeing a black Equinox and a burgundy colored Toyota Camry sitting in the houses driveway. I finally had reached the house of my long time friend and close sister, Jamie Powers.

I walked up to the door and knocked, seeing that the lights were on in the house, then was answered by a somewhat skinny tall woman, known as Lee. In other words, her mother.

"Oh, hey Lauren. What're you doin' here?"

"Hey, Mrs. Jernigan. Jamie's home right?" I said as she urged me to come in.

"Yeah, of course. Jamie! Lauren's here. You can go on to her room. She's probably on the computer." She replied as she walked into her own bedroom, letting her husband know I was here. I didn't waste any time though. As I walked into Jamie's room, all around the room were black lights. Mainly on her ceiling fan and one against the wall. Those were the only lights that lit up the room so it was halfway dark.

"Jamie. Hey." I said as I walked in her room. This girl was my best friend. Even more like a sister. I smiled a bit, then saw her eyes meet mine, her long curly brown and blonde-highlighted hair overlapped on her shoulders.

"Hey. What are you doin' here?" She asked.

"I'm here to ask you something."

"Okay. Can you close the door?" Since her low toned voice was only heard by me, I was able to speak my own normal voice without any delay.

"I...need your help. Ya see umm...this is gonna be hard to believe but..." I motioned both my feet out about two foot apart and closed my eyes. Again, a small flash shown in front of Jamie. Her eyes squinted a bit to the flash, her being not used to bright flashes like this. My arms and legs got shorter as my whole body was now white, then my hands turning into fingered boxing gloves with two spikes on each, and the same outlook I had before. My long yellow bangs were covering one of my eyes as I opened them, to see that Jamie's expression had changed from awe to confusion. I looked up at her, being about her size since she was sitting down, and blinked.

"Yeah...I know it looks um...really unbelievable...but - "

"No I believe it. I thought this was just a fan fiction of yours." She said, still not knowing what else to say.

"Well um...I have so much to explain right now...it's really complicated, but I'm sure you could follow." I said scratching the back of my head as I turned away slightly.

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Say no more. Just watch." I smiled and walked closer to her, raising my finger up to her chest and poking it with a soft touch. A small hot pink colored aura had surrounded her. She just let out a "Hm?" as she looked around her body, now being the same size as me.

This girl was different than the others. Having an amazing talent of making her own clothing line, she of course had an outfit that matched her personality. A teal blue colored plaid shirt was over top of a black t-shirt, the sleeves of the plaid shirt stopped at her elbows. Several stripes of her teal shirt were of the colors yellow, teal, and hot pink. Below the black t-shirt was a pair of light gray and faded jeans, a bit ripped at the left knee, followed by a pair of black and pink low tops with laces. Making up all of this amazing clothes, was her hot pink colored fur. Black bangs had covered one of her eyes, also covering her white sunglasses that covered her entire eye. The sunglasses, being white with a bit of black fringes was a big part of her power. She wasn't yet able to reveal that since it was her character. She had become her self character, Jamie Dawn the Echidna.

"Heh...how does it feel, James?" As I would call her by this nickname, she looked to me and tilted her sunglasses down.

"Well, I can see how it feels to be like that hedgehog." She smirked a bit. "But I think I can handle it...plus I need to get away from them." She said pointing toward the door where her parents were. I chuckled and smirked back to her, holding out my hand. She took it and kept that smirk, shaking it.

"But I think we should find a way to tell your parents..." Jamie looked to me with a confused look.

"You really don't think they'll approve do you? Pssssh...cmon, Lauren. Heh heh." I blinked for a moment, then smirked, knowing exactly what she meant.

"Alright, shall we take the fun way out?" I bowed to her with a wink and stood back up. "Let's go."

We both burst out the window to her room, which got the attention of her parents to rush into her room with surprise.

"Jamie?!" Said her mother.

"JAMIE! Where the fuck are you?! LAUREN!" Her father shouted. As they looked out the window, they noticed two figures jumping away from the house through the trees back toward the town. I looked back and the two noticed that it was actually me and Jamie as the two echidnas.

"Don't worry, you two! I'll take good care of Jamie! And we'll keep the planet under control, I promise!" I said with a laugh as Jamie and I disappeared into the trees. Her parents looked to each other and blinked, then watched as we disappeared.

It was clear that Jamie had loved the idea of us being partners in this fight against Mephiles...but there were still many questions to be answered...

"So what do you plan on next, huh?"

"Heh...I think it's time we visited some other friends of mine..." A smile spread across my face. "And I think I know exactly who to start with..."  
Jamie blinked...then rolled her eyes with a chuckle.

"You don't think the people in the boonies of Ohio will mind, do you?"  
"Hahaha...no I don't think so." The smile got wider across my face...we were now headed for Fletcher, Ohio...the one place I've wanted to visit for quite sometime now...


	4. Chapter 4

**Lauren the Echidna Volume 3**

**Chapter 4**

**The Destiny Warrior**

"**Ok...OW!" Jamie's head was spinning as she fell from the tree branch on top of her head. Since she already had a hard head like me as an echidna, she just shook it off. I jumped down to her from the same tree, laughing a bit as I helped her up. **

"**Hey, at least you can take it this time. Not like your parents were any different than this trip."**

"**Yeah, well...ah, forget it. Where are we going again?" She said as she stood to her feet.**

"**I told you, we're heading for Ohio. I'm trying to gather as many people as possible to help me defeat Mephiles."**

"**Oh, wow...the steak guy?" She smirked and laughed a bit, my laugh following. For the ones who didn't know what we were saying, we had made a redub video of one of the recent Sonic games, Sonic the Hedgehog: Next Generation. With her being the voice of Mephiles, we both wanted his voice to be of course, stupid, so she came up with the 'steak' voice.**

"**Haha, not this time James...this time it's really serious. You've been reading my stories, haven't you?"**

"**Ahh...sadly, no..." She scratched the back of her head and closed her eyes.**

"**Gah...okay. I supposedly had this 'dream' about me and Knuckles ya know, getting together, marrying, and having a kid..." Her face changed from a chuckle to a confused look.**

"**Just hear me out...after so many years, somehow the whole thing got turned around by Mephiles. I believe he just sent me back in time and was trying to prevent this stuff from happening..."**

"**You just said it was a dream..."**

"**I know for a fact it wasn't a dream!" My eyes narrowed, "It felt too real for it to be one..."**

"**Hey. Until we figure this out, why don't we just go find that boyfriend of yours?"**

"**But...what's he gonna say to all this happening...and how I went with Knuckles instead of him?..." I asked, stepping back a bit. Jamie stepped up again and smirked,**

"**Well we won't know until we get goin'." She turned me around and began to push me in the direction of Ohio. Since we were still in West Virginia, we still had a ways to go. Another hour had passed after jumping through half of the trees of Ohio, coming into the small town of Fletcher. I looked to Jamie and we both stopped in the shadows, both deforming to our human selves. Jamie looks to me and blinks, **

"**So is this the house...?"**

"**Yeh, it should be...c'mon." I walked ahead toward a small house adorned with a light blue coloring all around the walls. A porch covered the front door, along with a bit of a hill behind the house. I blinked looking to the house, just as that one had described to me, then smiled. My feet left the ground as I walked toward the house, but was grabbed by the arm by Jamie.**

"**Hey...you sure this is a good idea?" She asked.**

"**Yeah...it's the only way we can defeat Mephiles once and for all...and I can get my life straightened out..." I continued to walk, letting my arm slip out of Jamie's grasp. She shrugged it off and followed me. I walked up to the front door and let a solid knock hit onto the wooden door, avoiding the glass windows on it. There was a pause, then we both heard a voice that shouted, **

"**IT'S OPEN!" I blinked hearing that familiar voice, smiling as I opened the door. We walked in and the first thing Jamie and I see is a small living room with a computer desk in the corner, next to a heater. Sitting in the computer's chair was a somewhat average sized boy, with an afro I might add, it being dark brown, covering down to his ears slightly. His outfit was no different than he always wore: A red t-shirt with black lining, along with a pair of dark blue pants, seeming to be jeans, slightly ripped at the legs. I peeked around the corner and smiled wide, a slight blush coming across my face. I stepped up and leaned against the doorway and spoke,**

"**Well...that's some welcome for a boy your age." I smiled as I had my arms crossed. The boy looked to me, his brown eyes widening to my presence. He rubbed his eyes, in a bit of disbelief that I was there, but stood up from his chair, taking off his headphones, the music able to be heard because of it being so loud, and smiled. **

"**Lauren? Is that really you?!"**

"**Heh...sure is, Trey." I smiled more. Trey's eyes lowered again, running up to me, both of us grasping in a tight hug, happy to finally be seeing each other in person.**

"**It's so good to see you, Trey..." I held him close, as my arms were wrapped about his neck. He hugged back tighter, holding my body close to his, **

"**It's good to see you too, Hon..." He finally let me go from a voice behind me, which happened to be Jamie.**

"**Alright no kissy kissy, smoochy smoochy time right now. Don't you have a job to do, Lauren?" She smirked.**

"**...Yeh, I do. Trey," I began, "we need you're help with something..."**

"**What would that be?"**

"**You remember reading my fan-fiction, Lauren the Echidna, right?"**

"**Yeah." He blinked.**

"**Well...I would show you first, but it seems that all of that...is being changed by Mephiles..." He was in shock at first, only tilting his head, not understanding what I meant.**

"**Basically, all of the things that happened was just a dream for me...I know it's confusing but I'll just show you...is your dad home?" Trey shook his head, still having his arms wrapped around my waist. I blinked and looked away slightly, being a bit more shy than I was online. He smiled and chuckled a bit, urging me to take him outside where there would be more room. I nodded and walked outside with them, Trey following close behind me as Jamie was on my other side, nodding to me. We finally came to his backyard where the hill was formed and we stopped, hiding behind the wall near it. Trey blinked as he saw me looking around for any other witnesses, then puts his hands in his pockets, after putting on his black jacket before coming outside.**

"**Alright...ready, James?" I asked. Jamie nodded and we both held out our hands, suddenly becoming the two echidnas of hot pink and dirty blonde yellow. I straightened my glasses on my face and Jamie fixed her sunglasses over her eyes, with a smirk. Trey's face went from shock to a sudden smirk.**

"**You're telling me this is real?" He chuckled. I smiled and nodded, now being shorter than him, I walked up and raised a hand up to him. Trey blinked,**

"**What are you doing?"**

"**Helping out, Hon." I smiled and made a bright purple aura surround his whole body.**

**His being had shrunk as well as we had before, but this time it was a hedgehog form instead of an echidna. His hands became white gloves like Sonic's, red fur with purple-tipped quills, and black bangs covering his eyes. His clothes were almost the same as he had on as a human: A long black trench coat covered a slick black sleeveless shirt, followed by a dark purple pair of pants, and black shoes to go along with them. Trey looked at himself and blinked, he had become his character self, now known as Ark the Destiny Warrior.**

"**Whoa..." He looked at his hands, "this is fucking awesome!" He clenched his fists in front of his face with a smirk, then looked to me, seeing a sudden frown on my face.**

"**Hon? Are you okay?"**

"**Yeh...fine. Just wondering about how this will effect everyone else I come to recruit..." I looked down and placed a hand between where my eyes were and grunted, feeling a headache coming along. Ark blinked and walked up to me, **

"**Hey...don't worry. As soon as we find Mephiles, I promise to be there by your side as long as I'm alive..." He smiled to me and placed a hand on my cheek. **

**A few moments passed and we all went back to our human states, then feeling another hug between mine and Trey's body. He smiled more, then looked to Jamie,**

"**Well, I guess you'll hafta deal with me during the whole trip. Heh heh." He chuckled.**

"**Oh goodie. Haha." She laughed along with me and Trey, seeing the sun suddenly setting over the horizon. Trey then looked back to me with his hands around my waist again, holding me close. I smiled and blushed, him being the same height as me, wrapping my arms around him as well.**

"**So...where are we off to next?" Trey asked, rocking me slightly in his arms.**

"**Heh...better be ready for anything in this next trip...we're headed for Phoenixville, Pennsylvania." I smirked.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Lauren the Echidna Volume 3**

**Chapter 5**

**Metal Overload**

**The skies of that day became dark, many clouds had covered the stars that were in that deep blue sky. As I stared into the dark clouds, sitting in my human form outside of a small hotel, I began to think. Trey and Jamie had already gone to sleep in the two separate beds that were in the hotel room, but me...I was too awake to even try and sleep. **

**My eyes drooped to the face of me losing my supposed 'family' and my attention dragged down toward the ground below me, considering I was sitting on the roof of the hotel. Almost being one o'clock in the morning, my eyes began to get heavy, but I still didn't want to sleep. A few minutes passed and I felt a sudden, but short spike of Chaos Energy behind me. Come to find out, it was Trey who had transformed into Ark, and using Chaos Control to transfer to the roof. I knew it was him, so I stayed quiet, still staring toward the ground, until Trey spoke up after deforming.**

"**Hon...? What are you doing up here?" He said as he sat down beside me over the edge of the roof. I refused to look at him, but started to reply,**

"**I don't know...I just can't sleep..." Trey froze for a moment, at first not knowing what to say, but soon placed his arm around my left shoulder,**

"**Does it have anything to do with that fan-fiction of yours? And about how you married Knuckles...?" I was shocked, blushing from embarrassment and shyness. I looked up at him and he just smiled a bit,**

"**Hon, it's okay that you wrote the story...it was just from your imagination. It doesn't matter if it was real or not...as long as you're happy...I'll be happy..." He smiled more.**

"**Are you sure it's okay..."**

"**Yes, I'm sure..." But his mouth was stopped by a finger from my hand,**

"**Because Trey..."**

"**Yeah?"**

"**I'll be even happier if I'm with you..." I started to smile, followed by a red blush across my face. My head raised from his shoulder and he smiled along with me, placing a hand on my cheek, making me blush more. He chuckled,**

"**Heh heh...blush girl...ya know, Lauren...I'm glad I met you."**

"**Heh...because I keep you from getting into trouble." I laughed a bit, but he wraps both his arms around me and would poke my sides, of which I was very ticklish.**

"**Ah! No no no!" I grabbed his hands after laughing a bit more, him matching it, then just turning me toward him.**

"**Lauren..."**

"**Yeh, Trey?"**

"**I...I love you..." He said with a slight blush on his face, this being the first time telling me in person.**

"**...I love you too, Trey..." I smiled more, my blush getting deeper as I then felt his lips press against mine. Our first kiss was finally for real, and on top of a hotel roof, under the night sky. As we broke the kiss with each other, we both stared into each others' eyes, our foreheads pressing against one another.**

"**Heh...butterflies?" Trey asked with a chuckle. I smiled and nodded, laughing along,**

"**Heh heh. Yeh, definitely."**

"**Alright...maybe we should get some sleep." Trey stood up and helped me up to my feet.**

"**Okay then." Another second passed and we both transported back to our hotel room, seeing that Jamie was still asleep, then getting into the other bed. **

**I couldn't believe this was happening, but the next day made everything go...somewhat smoother. We three were finally closing in on Phoenixville in less than a few minutes, since we decided to crash in the hotel near Valley Forge, then came upon a small block with many houses and some stores a short walk away. As I began to walk forward, I suddenly stopped to feel a bad vibe coursing behind us all. My eyes widened to the dark energy, Trey and Jamie looked back to see that very hedgehog standing there with his slumped over state, slight purple auras emitting from his hands and feet, but also with the light blue crystalline spikes coming out of his spines and ends of his fingers. Mephiles' new mouth had moved up to a smirk, seeming to have fangs in it as well. He began to chuckle, seeing that he had me in his grasp, as I was frozen in my place. Trey and Jamie stood in front of me, both transforming into their Soinc selves, then got both their own power ready to combat this abomination. My pupils shrunk to feel this immense power once again, sudden fear going through my body. Mephiles stepped forward and a small crater had formed with each step due to his dark power, then crystalline spikes replacing the holes in the ground.**

**He chuckled lowly as he would always do, followed by his hand raising up toward Jamie and Ark, a larger purple and light blue aura surrounded his hand and he quickly shot out tons of light blue crystal spikes at both the hedgehog and the echidna. Jamie and Ark jumped out of sight, but Ark jumped back to take me out of the range of fire. My eyes still remained small and wide, Ark budging me to snap out of it. Nothing happened. I stood there watching the battle as it raged on between Mephiles, Jamie and Ark. Since I was frozen, I had my moment to think, trying to snap myself out of this trance. Many images veered inside my head as I thought of my upcoming doom, seeing Mephiles' hand aiming toward my face. My eyes widened more, as I finally snapped out of it, but soon came in contact with a local abandoned warehouse that was near a familiar home.**

**The young man who lived inside the home was nothing more than the average gamer, but also a writer. His brown, somewhat messy hair covered over top of his glasses, followed by his usual outfit of a red t-shirt, this time with a red Chaos Emerald print on it, due to a friend making it for him, and a pair of black cargo shorts, with sandals covering his feet. His eyes of a blue color had gotten the attention from the crash by looking out side, seeing me in the front of the warehouse. His eyes narrowed a bit in confusion, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, but soon realized who was outside his home.**

"**Lauren..." He knew exactly what was happening, but since none of his family was home at the time, he ran down the stairs and came outside to see one of his most used enemies from his fan-fictions holding me up by my throat and squeezing tightly, knowing that there was nothing for me to do. The young man just narrowed his eyes a bit more and he stepped up, shouting,**

"**HEY, MEPHILES!" Mephiles turned and dropped me to the ground. I blinked and looked up, coughing a few times before I recognized the voice of the one who was standing there. Grunting, I stood up and smirked, knowing in my head that he knew what was to come next. Mephiles stared for a moment in disgust,**

"**Well well...Andrew Parsons...the creator of Chaos Theory I assume...hmhmhm..." Andrew was always famous on DeviantART for his fan-fictions, one of them being Chaos Theory where he began his writing for the Sonic universe. Mephiles snickered again and smirked wide, showing the fangs in his mouth glistening off the slight amount of light giving off from the sun behind many dark clouds. I quickly appeared in front of Andrew, arms spread out, and in one hand...the red Chaos Emerald.**

"**I knew this would come in handy soon...Drew, take it if you want a part of this fight." Andrew smirked and took it, its red glow filling up his hand. "You know what you can do...and there's only one character you can become." He nodded in agreement, then it followed the palm of my hand jabbing into his chest.**

**1 Andrew's body began to glow a faint gray color, his body shrinking to my size. His hands were not covered in any gloves, they were just...brown fur. He had no shirt, so it showed a bare peach colored chest, and quills were growing out of the back of his head, followed by bangs over top behind his ears and over his deep blue eyes. Andrew's bottom half was no more than a pair of ripped blue jeans and white sneakers, but was the way he designed his self character. He smirked more, not caring that he wasn't his main Sonic character, Scion, but he was none other than...**

"**Drew the Hedgehog! Ready for action!" Andrew smirked more, feeling a strong aura of fire and metal surrounding him, as is what his main energy came from in this world. Mephiles was not amused, but he was angry that I had gotten another person on the team. Mephiles had failed again, and wasn't about to give up. He fired a massive array of light blue, poisonous needles toward us all, but we all dodged to the top of the roof of that same warehouse. I landed in front of them all and nodded, **

"**Alright guys...let's show em how it's done...Jamie, slow him down!"**

"**On it." Jamie jumped down, being in her echidna form, and her hands raised to the air, stopping Mephiles in his tracks with a quick blast of Chaos Control, surrounding him in a pink aura, "Heh...how do ya like the new color, Mephy?" She smirked. Mephiles grunted, having no way of struggling away from this grip. Her energy was greater than he expected it to be.**

"**Ark, to the ground with him!" Ark smirked and flipped forward off the roof and shouted a quick "WOO!" as he hit the ground. "Heh heh...Destiny...DESTROYER!" His hand lunged in front of his body, letting a large purple beam right at Mephiles' stomach, sending him flying into a nearby tree that sat beside a house. He growled in pain and stood back up on his feet, ready to attack again, but one more order was to be given,**

"**Drew, melt him down!" Andrew jumped off the roof as well and placed his hands together, then firing a large slice of metal at Mephiles, pinning him to the tree after it pierced through his chest. Mephiles shouted and growled more, but then felt a huge blaze of red and orange fire melting the metal in his chest, it soon covering his entire upper and lower body in a goop of gray, melted, metal and it's burning melted state burned his body almost to shreds.**

**I then walked up to Mephiles, watching as his body melted to nothing, about to raise my hand to deal a final blow, but stopped to look in his eyes. I narrowed my own as I stood in front of him,**

"**You're beat for now Mephiles...I don't have nearly as enough power to kill you now...consider yourself lucky...for the time..." I frowned at his face, seeming to have a smirk on it, eyes red and the same eerie green as before. **

"**Hmhmhm...you will warm up to me soon, Berry...you will ALL see!" He then melted into a black and light blue crystalline puddle before us all and there was no other trace. Andrew stepped up and spoke,**

"**So...this is all for real this time huh? Looks like Mephiles has one of the biggest grudges against you, Liz." As he would always call me.**

"**Yeh...but this time I can gather the other members of your Team Control, but it won't be the same..." I stared at the sky as the clouds began to pour rain on top of us. **

"**Let's get out of here...Webb City is waiting for us..." I smirked at the sight of Andrew's face lighting up to hearing the town where his beloved lived.**

"**Alright Nicky...be ready for an unexpected arrival..."**


	6. Chapter 6

**Lauren the Echidna Volume 3**

**Chapter 6**

**Don't Let Sour Notes Bring You Down**

"**Lauren, are you sure we gotta get Nicky next?" Asked Ark as we all sped through the forests of Georgia.**

"**Yes, I'm sure. Why else would I be?" I replied with my eyes slightly narrowed, stepping from branch to branch in each tree.**

"**I still think this is a long shot...don't you think gathering this whole 'team' of yours is a bit dangerous?" Jamie wondered. That was when I stopped in my tracks in the middle of a group of trees. Everyone went silent, only the wind and the rustling of the leaves sounding around us. Ark looked toward Drew, who had just crossed his arms, then to Jamie, who was looking out toward the exit from the forest, seeming to be thinking. Ark blinked and glanced at me, noticing that I was starting to walk away. He quickly ran up to me and grabbed my shoulder.**

"**Hey hey, where ya going, Lauren?"**

"**I'm gonna go get Nicky...you guys can hang out here by yourselves for all I care...I'm gonna get the help we need and destroy Mephiles once and for all..." I then pulled away from his grasp and walked on, leaving them all standing there with no leader, even though I wouldn't really consider myself a leader if I didn't know what to really do in my time of need. Ark blinked as he reached his hand out to stop me again, but pulled back, knowing if he kept on I would get angry. He wanted to help, but at the time none of them knew what to do. Drew just sighed and leaned against a tree as Jamie stood on top of a tall tree branch, watching as I walked off toward the entrance to Webb City, Missouri.**

**It may have been a short trip, but I finally arrived to the homes of Webb City, where there were many events going on. Several policemen had been called to deal with a few things, but it looked like things were under control and had no need for me. I came upon a corner, trying to spot the house of our next team member, but found myself bumping into a tall young man, about my age, maybe older. I grunted and glared slightly at the man, but all he did was smirk and grab a hold of my arm.**

"**Well well, lookie what we have here boys, some little hottie got lost. Heh heh heh." He smirked, me trying to pull away from him, trying not to transform to kick his ass for touching me. He grabbed tight and looked straight into my eyes as a few other guys came out from a nearby alley, a few with their fists punching together, knowing there was going to be action.**

"**You have three seconds to let go of me..." My eyes narrowed at the man and he just chuckled, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and a hand suddenly placed on the back of my head. I grunted and growled at him, pulling away from him again.**

"**I'm warning you pal...don't mess with me..." I growled more, fists clenched and about to punch. He grabs my fist and slams me up against the brick wall of the building next to us and smirked.**

"**Feisty one, aren't you? Why don't you let me teach you a lesson, huh?" He lowered his hand to my side, and that...was far enough for me. Grabbing his hand, I bent it over top of his head, then tripped him to fall to his knees. With my palm aimed at the back of his head, the other guys had quickly pulled out guns and aimed at me, unsure if they should really fire. I glared at each of them, slightly nervous to the sight of the guns, but spoke, keeping the young man in my grip.**

"**If you want him to live, you will drop your weapons...now." My voice got slightly darker, intimidating the other men to just drop their guns and run off, leaving me and the man alone. The man began to freak out, struggling to get away from me.**

"**Wh-Who the fuck are you?!" He struggled more. I bent down to him and whispered in his ear,**

"**That doesn't matter...I'm letting you go this time, but the next time you touch me like that, which I highly doubt you will...we'll be having a problem with putting you back together..." I finally let him go and he struggled to get away, scooting against the wall and shortly running off to where the policemen had found him to take him into custody. I walked on, trying not to look back into those eyes of his, seeming way too familiar to me.**

**I soon came upon a small house around the next corner, looking like any other average house, but smaller than what I thought. Closer and closer I began to think to myself about what my teammates had said to me.**

**"Don't you think gathering this 'team' of yours is a bit dangerous?" Words kept buzzing around in my head, getting me to think differently than before, but I shook it off and came up to the house that Nicky had been living in. Knocking on the door and waiting, I stared up at the sky for a moment before the door was finally opened. An older woman answered and looked to me.**

"**Oh, hey, how are you doing. Is Nicky home?" I asked politely as I always would. The woman blinked a few times before realizing who I was.**

"**You're Lauren aren't you? What are you doing all the way out here in Missouri? Surely you must have a good enough reason for wanting to see my daughter."**

"**I do ma'am...I fear there's someone after me and well...it's a bit hard to explain it...because I know you won't believe it, but I really need to see Nicky..." My expression changed from serious to worry. She looked to me for another moment or so, then finally let me inside.**

"**Alright, but make it quick." Her face was still a bit untrustworthy, but let me into Nicky's room, where she was watching her usual TV shows and doing her homework at the same time. I knocked on the door to her room and all I heard from her mouth was, "Come in."**

"**Looks like we're gonna talk a bit closer don't you think, sis?" She blinked, recognizing that voice anywhere. Nicky turned around, me seeing her light brownish hair and gray blue eyes with glasses staring at me with awe from her computer desk. Nicky's outfit was no more normal than any other average girl: Dark blue t-shirt with a few music note designs on it, blue jeans and socks. She quickly got up from her seat and happily hugged me, excited to see me in real life finally and then let me go,**

"**What are you doing here, Lauren? I thought you were still in North Carolina for your senior year?"**

"**Well...that was originally the plan, but something...came up, and I need your help for it." I stood back from her, shutting the door to where there was only a crack, and spread my arms out, quickly transforming into my echidna form in a flash of yellow. Her eyes widened to see this, wondering if this was a dream. I slowly shook my head and looked up to her,**

"**This isn't a dream, Nic...you've read my fan-fic, right?" She nodded and sat on her bed. "Well...I have reasons to believe that Mephiles had made it all but a dream for me. I don't know if it really was a dream or not...but I think he only sent me back in time to prevent all that from happening. That's why I need your help to defeat him...will you?" My eyes drooped a bit looking at her expression, which was still confused.**

"**I know it's hard to believe right now, but it's true, Nic...and to really prove it...here." I reached into my hoodie pocket and took out the red Chaos Emerald again that I got back from Drew and handed it to her. "One of the seven Chaos Emeralds...take it, Nicky...trust me nothing bad will happen..." **

**Nicky reached her hand out and grabbed the shining gem and gripped it, a red aura surrounding her whole body. Soon her body shrunk to my size like everyone else, but this time, she was in the shape of a hedgehog and a wolf. Her ears had grown out to be long and bushy like a wolf, and a long tail like a wolf as well, her fur being light blue with purple streaks in her fur and bangs that covered her eyes. She looked at her hands, which were covered in white gloves as usual, then a black t-shirt with the phrase "R for Rebel" and black jeans with a musical note belt around her waist. The last bit were her paintball splat converse that made the outfit stand out. She blinked her light blue eyes and looked about herself, starting to believe that this was really real.**

"**Wow...this is awesome, Lauren! So how are we gonna convince my mom that I need to come with you? You know her by now...she won't let me do too much with people she hardly knows."**

"**I already have that covered. Cmon, deform..." She nodded, closing her eyes and forming back to her human self, smiling to me.**

**We made our way back into the living room where her mother was cleaning up. Nicky peeked into the room to talk to her mom what I had told her, while I stood at the front door, waiting to leave with her. After a moment or two, Nicky came back to me and nodded, saying that it was okay for us to go out somewhere for the day to hang out. We both knew that wasn't the real reason, but anything we needed to get her out of there. As we walked down the street, those same guys from before had came up to both of us. I narrowed my eyes then rolled them at the sight of 'em, but Nicky decided to stay still, frozen in her spot. Putting a hand on her shoulder, I smirked toward the guys and clenched my fist.**

"**These guys tried to ambush me awhile ago...they won't be any problem..."**

"**Oh, they won't, will they?" A voice so familiar came into the area around us, my eyes suddenly widening to the dark and eerie sound of those vocals in front of us. That guy from before was actually that black abomination again, moving closer to us with his body limped over slightly as he walked. **

"**M-Mephiles...Nicky get back..." I stood in front of her and moved back, protecting her from any harm he could do. Mephiles did nothing but smirk with his fangs hanging out of his mouth, his stare darker and more evil than our last encounter. I continued to step back with Nicky as she held onto my shoulder, as I was doing the same to her.**

"**Your fear is growing, Berry.....if you are this so called 'hero'.....then why don't you face me alone....."**

"**Because I know what you'll do if I leave my team behind!!" I shouted in anger.**

"**Now now Lauren.....all you want in life.....is to be looked up to. You do not really care about the lives of your teammates.....you only care about being noticed. Seems to me like that.....does it not?" He smirked more, glancing upward toward us both with one of his eerie green eyes. I couldn't bear to hear anymore of his rambling on. Without warning, I transformed into my echidna state and charged toward him, landing a quick uppercut with a bit of speed and power on his chin. He did nothing but let his head tilt back, but slowly put it back in place, hearing a slight crack from his neck. I cringed at the sound, knowing I didn't like it when people did it at school, but tried punching again, this time with more speed than before.**

**Mephiles smirked and grabbed my fist, catching it in mid-punch, then started to crush it, me shouting in pain. Nicky couldn't stand to see this, so she quickly transformed into her hedgewolf state and reached her hands in the air, forming a light blue energy made guitar, strings and all in her hand. She smirked and strummed the six stringed instrument and it suddenly blew out a large light blue energy eighth note, spinning like a blade right into Mephiles' arm, letting my fist go and watching me stumble back. I growled at him and rushed forward again, but once again, Mephiles stood aside and tripped me, making me land right into the arms of the rest of the men around him. Struggling to get free, one of them took their gun and pointed it right at my head. I stopped and growled, knowing if I moved, I would be as good as dead.**

"**Lauren! Alright you son of a bitch, let her go!" Nicky growled as her bushy wolf ears perked up in anger. She gripped the guitar tighter, but Mephiles snapped, forcing one of the men to push the gun closer to my head and his finger to move to the trigger. Nicky's eyes widened as she stood there, slowly dropping the guitar, watching as it disappeared into blue sparks, and her hands lowered to her sides.**

**Mephiles smirked and healed his arm with a snap and chuckled.**

"**Hmhmhmhm.....it seems you both need more help than you think.....where those other brats are I wonder.....maybe out all by themselves because their precious leader left them behind?" His fangs began to grow slightly, but then stopped them due to his body suddenly being frozen in place. "Hmm?! N-Not again, who the hell....."**

"**Hedgehogs, fire away!" Shouted the pink echidna from the top of a nearby home. Both Ark and Drew jumped up into the air, both forming their own attack combo of their own. Ark would form an orb of Destiny Energy while Drew created a firey aura around the orb, also placing metal inside it here and there.**

"**Now FIRE!"**

**They both threw their hands forward down at Mephiles, slamming the orb down on top of his head, allowing the men to let me go and for me to jump away from the sudden blast. My eyes widened to see my fellow teammates there helping, but then narrowed them back down to Mephiles.**

"**Hmph...Ya know what Mephiles..."**

"**Ngh.....what.....that you're failing as a leader? You were never the type to lead others into battle.....hmhmhm.....you were never even able to make your own friends because of your nature.....this is what I intend to release.....hehehehehehe.....NGH!!" A fist had suddenly been shoved through his chest, mainly mine, the two spikes and my entire hand covered in nothing but a violet substance. Mephiles grunted in pain once again, his other injuries from the last battle still in his system, and narrowed his eyes at me. My eyes met his own and I smirked,**

"**You know what...seems to me like you're out of commission...again...NICKY, PIN HIM DOWN!" I threw him up into the air while Nicky took out her guitar once again to send a few large eighth notes to pin him to the ground by his legs and arms. **

"**DREW, TENDORIZE HIM!" Drew jumped over top of Mephiles and fired many flames of red and orange down on top of his chest, burning right through him and to the ground below, then flipping back and landing on the ground.**

"**ARK, KEEP HIM DOWN!" Ark jumped up high and spun around quickly, sending many blades of violet and blue down on top of the black hedgehog, crushing him into the cold ground, creating a large crater under him.**

"**And Jamie! You know what we can do..." Jamie nodded and smirked, landing beside me, holding up her right hand while I raised up my left toward Mephiles. His eyes narrowed and he began to snicker. Jamie and I blinked and both our hands were glowing yellow and hot pink, preparing to attack, but Mephiles had other plans.**

**His hands and legs broke free from Nicky's musical grasp, which caused her to be blown back onto a building wall, almost causing it to collapse. Drew turned around to go help his beloved for the first time in real life, but was suddenly shot down as well by a blast of violet and blue energy from Mephiles quills, making him land close to Nicky and both of them deforming to their human selves.**

"**Drew! Nicky!" Ark ran forward and attempted to land a Destiny Thrust on his jaw, violet aura ablazing from his hand, but Mephiles grabs his hand, crushes it and tosses him into the same building. My eyes narrowed and a fierce growl came from my mouth as I charged for Mephiles. He smirked more and decided to play with me again, stopping me in my tracks with one hand raised. **

"**AH! WHAT THE...?!" Mephiles then stopped Jamie, who had jumped at him from behind, then slammed both our heads together, knocking us both out cold. He laughed from the sight, but knew he couldn't do more to us because of his lack of power. He reaches down to Nicky and takes the red Chaos Emerald that I had given her for the time being, and gripped it in his hand.**

"**Hmhmhmhmhm....hahahahaha....AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" As he laughed, the entire state was in fear, as well as the states around us. In a quick flash of blue, Mephiles disappeared, leaving behind a small aura that quickly seeped into my system through my mouth. I gagged slightly, but was still out cold, not feeling any different. **

**Our bodies lay there, unmoving...**

**How will we defeat Mephiles when he now has one of the seven Chaos Emeralds? We definitely needed more help than we thought...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Lauren the Echidna Volume 3**

**Chapter 7**

**On the Defense!**

**Mephiles' rain of terror over top of the team was quite the show, but it left us out for the count for at least an hour before people began to come up and wonder if we were alright. As we were all in our human forms at the moment, the first one to wake up was Trey. He sat up and rubbed his head a few times before realizing that we had lost the battle. As the other people asked him if he was alright, he nodded to them and told them to get out of there before Mephiles was to attack again.**

**The night sky changed a bit darker, several stars shining down on top of the world, and Trey needed to get all of us to wake up. He kneeled down to Nicky and woke her up first, knowing she could help in healing and helped her up. Trey pointed out that we needed a jump start, so she agreed and walked up to Drew first, then Jamie, then me.**

**As we all made it to our feet, I looked up to the sky and clenched my fists. No one said much after this quick defeat, but soon knew that it wasn't over.**

**"We've had too much on the offense lately...now we need to go to the defense...and you all know exactly who I'm talking about." They all smiled to the fact that we were now heading for the next member.**

**"I'm sure Dani will probably have some reason to deny it...but if all of us were there, maybe she'll reconsider." Everyone looked to Drew and nodded, agreeing with his logic, then we huddled together to prevent anyone else from hearing us.**

**"Alright so we're only a short ways from Kansas...anyone remember the town she lives in?" I asked. Drew raised his hand up a bit and spoke,**

**"Wellington. Lots of people, but averaged sized home. I'm sure we'll spot it. Now let's get out of here." Drew lowered his hand and stood straight up, taking Nicky by her hand with a smile. She smiled back as she and Drew transformed to their anthro selves and looked to me. As Trey and Jamie transformed, I thought to myself: Why wouldn't Dani want to come with us? She's got the talent, so why would Drew think that she would deny it? Only time would've told if we went ahead and left for Wellington, Kansas. Pretty soon...**

**"Liz, I'm not doing it!" **

**"Why are you saying no? I already proved it to you and now you know what Mephiles is after. Can you please help us out?"**

**The argument continued between me, the whole team, and the somewhat large sized girl with dark hair and deep blue eyes. Her long hair was covered with a hairband, pulling it back below her shoulders like a ponytail. As the argument raised higher into the room, there was no one left arguing except me and Dani.**

**"Dani, many lives are in danger right now, can't you sacrifice just a little while to help us defeat Mephiles?" She went silent, staring at her computer screen, since she was working on her sprite animations and artwork, then looked back to me.**

**"What help could I be? If this is like Control, then shouldn't I be Dani the Fox?" This is the point where I facepalmed. I nodded to her and explained how it works, but this time couldn't transform her because I couldn't do it without a Chaos Emerald, since Mephiles took the last one we had. Dani sighed in disappointment, but looked back up to me,**

**"Alright...I'll come with you, but I'm sure I'll fail." Which this was her favorite word, but we would get her over it sooner or later. **

**"You won't fail, Dani...trust me...but we'll find a Chaos Emerald and give you the power you deserve." Dani nodded slowly, still in shock about the whole subject, but would do anything to help out. She got up from her chair and finally left with us, since no one was in the house besides her, she left a small note on the frigerator explaining where she was.**

**We left the house in several flashes, but one of us needed to stay with Dani in case we would find a Chaos Emerald. Hours passed, so it was finally about midnight when we stopped at the brink of South Dakota. One more state and we would have another person to deal with of staying on the team, but with nothing to do since we had no Emerald.**

**It was my turn to search for what we needed. While everyone found a local hotel in the state, I was off through the woods and the cities trying to sense where one was. For awhile I had no luck, but after an hour I finally sensed some random spike and smirked, transforming and running off through the shadows to prevent any events with police or people shouting that there was some kind of creature running around.**

**I stopped at the edge of the forest and looked around frantically for the emerald. After a moment or so, sudden gusts of wind were all around me, making me freeze in my tracks, since that gust was below freezing. I knew exactly who was there.**

**"Ah, well great...trying to freeze me, Mephiles?! I thought you were poison based, not freezer happy!"**

**There was a silence, followed by another gust of freezing wind finally sending me back into a tree, my hands and legs frozen to the trunk. My eyes narrowed and I struggled to pull myself out, but didn't have enough strength to do so. Growling, my body continued to struggle to try and break the ice, but was soon interrupted by laughing. Indeed, it was Mephiles, but it wasn't the same one as before. My eyes narrowed in confusion and I grunted, feeling the ice starting to go into my fur then my flesh, due to it being freezing it could damage me. **

**"You're wondering why the real Mephiles isn't here, am I correct?" The figure smirked, him being a hedgehog like Mephiles, but with icy blue colored stripes.**

**"Hmph...I can tell just by lookin' at ya...who the hell are you anyway? Just another ripoff of the real deal?"**

**The black hedgehog smirked and just snickered. His eyes were nothing but a deep yellow color, backed up by his bright icy blue stripes. His claws raised into the air and a huge aura of icy blue shards surrounded them, brought up brighter by the soft light of the blue moon. I looked up and blinked, watching as the shards became bigger by the second, then looked up toward the moon, realizing where he was getting his power.**

**"Tch...you really think this is gonna scare me?! You got another thing comi-" Before I could finish, I looked back toward the hedgehog and his hand was right in my face, the freezing temperature of the aura already seeping around my body. I began to shiver. Shiver in both fear and becoming frozen. My speech was stuttered, but I had to ask his name...**

**"Wh-Wh-Who are y-you...?!" I shivered more, still trying my best to move away. The hedgehog smirked and raised his other hand toward me, freezing me even faster.**

**"Hmhmhm...my name is Arctic...one of Master Mephiles' clones. And you my dear are going to be finished off faster than the Master ever could do." He smirked more, surrounding my body with the freezing aura and I shivered more and letting grunts escape from my mouth as I was freezing in my place. It was only until we heard a familiar voice shouting from the tree above us both,**

**"Get away from her!" This girl...was none other than the DeviantART Sprite Artist and my sister, Dani. She had become her fan character, Dani the Fox. The fox jumped up high above us with her long black hair flowing in the night wind, it being held together by a light blue hairband, followed by her lavender colored fur bristling from her anger of seeing me freeze. She flipped a few times, letting the black hoodie sleeves flap in the quick wind around her as she dove toward Arctic. He looked up to her and saw that this fox had changed her outlook completely. With dark purple gloves on her hands held together by a white band on each, with a dark purple outfit to follow, she holds her hands together and forms a large multi-colored barrier around Arctic, sending him back off the cliff as Dani was to land on a multi-colored disc that safely got her to land on to the ground with such grace and movement. **

**"Dani, we need more of that defense, can you handle that guy while we get Lauren?" Drew wondered as his hand were starting to surround in flames.**

**"Yeah...I'm sure I can." She replied with her sky blue eyes narrowed toward where Arctic was sent. He was unable to be seen, but Dani knew he wasn't done yet. Arctic suddenly jumped back over top of the ledge and flew toward Dani with tons of icy crystals blasting behind him, freezing everything that came into his path. Dani just jumped back onto another disc that carried her upwards, her long lavender and blue tipped tail whipping from side to side in the air as she rose to prepare her next attack. All of us that thought she was only able to defend us, she was this time, able to attack with her newly found ability.**

**Arctic stopped and launched himself up in the air, hands adorned with many icy crystals that would freeze on contact. Dani flipped off of the disc and threw her hands forward, firing tons of smaller razor sharp discs toward Arctic's quills, cutting off most of the fur tips off. Arctic growled and start to flip backward after losing his balance and landed on his back right in front of us all. I had finally unfrozen and was being held up by Ark, while Nicky, Drew, and Jamie were standing in front over top of Arctic. My eyes opened slightly and I smirked.**

**"L-Looks like...you're gonna be dealt with faster than anyone's ever done...ngh...hehehehe...." I hung my head down and looked to the others.**

**"Don't worry, Lauren. We got your back. Jamie, mind helpin' Dani?"**

**"With pleasure." Jamie smirked and ran toward Arctic with her right hand raised up, it being covered in a light pink aura once again. "Chaos Control..." She flipped over top of Arctic and then threw her arm forward towards Dani, throwing him full speed at her. Dani smirked and held up her hands while her tail flicked upward quickly, creating another large barrier appear in front of her, almost every neon color flashing from left and right to stand out, but also stopping Arctic inside, encasing him inside a neon colored cage with unbreakable bars. Arctic growled and was about to try and shatter Dani's barrier, but was interrupted by a blast of electricity shocking him inside the cage. He shouted and the ice around his body had shattered, leaving nothing but a hollow blue center after his black fur had been taken off. His yellow eyes drooped, looking to what was and will always be my lightning energy seeping around my hand, after standing up on my own from recovering off the ice.**

**I panted and smirked at him, sweat falling down my face, fur frizzy slightly after the ice had almost consumed me, then looked to Dani. **

**"Alright, Dani...do away with him..." Dani nodded and smiled, throwing Arctic's body off the side of the small cliff that was there and finally walked up to me. I smiled up to her and stood straight up.**

**"So...where in the world did you find the Chaos Emerald?"**

**"Heh...we found it in the hotel room we got. Apparently, someone was using it as a paperweight." I blinked and looked to the others, who just nodded, agreeing with what she said. My smile turned wide, and a laugh began between us all. It was indeed a weird night, but now we have the Sprite Artist on our side and we have an amazing defense to back us up. A few more people remain in this world that we could recruit...and where we were off too next, wouldn't have been my best choice after being almost frozen to death. North Dakota was our next destination...**


	8. Chapter 8

_Lauren the Echidna Volume 3_

_Chapter 8_

___The Frost Diamond_

"_Gyahh...why couldn't we have warmed up in New York first THEN come to North Dakota..." As my eyes drooped to a lower level than the others, all of the team gathered so far in human form followed behind, Andrew being the first to speak up._

"_...Because New York is a hellhole?" Most of the team chuckled, leaving me quiet and solemn. Trey looked to me, realizing that I had my arms crossed, still almost freezing from the recent battle with Arctic, but thanks to Dani's help, we were able to fend him off._

"_At least it's better than Pennsylvania..." Dani raised an eyebrow toward Andrew, who was already glaring toward her through the soft shine of his glasses. Nicky sighed, knowing there was nothing she could say to calm him down at the time. My eyes went from droopy to angry. As I looked back, I heard one phrase from Andrew's mouth that I wish he hadn't..._

"_Oh, no! We're not in Kansas anymore, Dani! We might as well take you back home!" Sparks flew in between the eyes of Dani and Andrew, but I looked back to where I was going and shouted, _

"_Will you two just shut it?! We're almost there..." I shivered more, hugging myself tighter from the cold, not getting use to it. Trey's concerned look turned to a caring one, suddenly wrapping his jacket around me, trying to keep me warm. I blinked and looked to him and his t-shirt, but he said he'd be okay. A smile came to my face and I kept on toward a small house off the next few blocks of Grand Forks. I finally stopped at the door and looked to the rest of the team,_

"_Okay...I think I should go inside by myself for this one. With all of us here at one time, who knows if we'll get her to come with us or not." Jamie stepped forward and spoke up,_

"_Hey, if I was dragged all the way from my hell hole of a house all the way to North Dakota to get one person, that means I'm coming too." She smirked. My face went from confused to the same smirk and nodded, urging Jamie to come along with me, leaving the rest of the team to stay outside in the snowy weather._

"_I honestly think Lauren's in over her head..." Everyone looked to Andrew with a sudden glare and confusion in their eyes. "Think about it...she just appears out of nowhere, drags us all here and there just to get Team Control and who knows who else to defeat Mephiles? She has somethin' planned..." It wasn't two seconds later that Trey stood up to him with a frown on his face._

"_She is not over her head. Lauren has her reasons for bringing us all together, wouldn't you think?!"_

"_Hey, at least I'm thinking...you're just here because you just love being around her. Now that you two are together, you're becoming distracted by it and not looking toward her 'plan.' What do you think about that, Caramel Crackbaby?!" Which this was the one nickname Trey hated to be called back when we were over the chats on either Windows Live or DeviantART, but he didn't do anything at the time._

"_Hmph...fuck it. I'm not gonna just stand here and let you talk trash about her. I'm off. And tell her I'll be back later." Trey turned and stormed off into the next couple of streets of this small town, leaving the others to ponder what has gotten into him._

_Back inside the house, Jamie and I had been talking to a young, short haired girl sitting on her bed, listening to our proposition about needing her help to defeat Mephiles. It was hard for her to believe it at first, letting us know that if she left that her parents would indeed freak, as well as her dad would probably do something to keep us from taking her with us, but we had something to cover that up. With the flick of a wrist, Jamie and I had both transformed to our echidna selves, showing the girl, who we called Ivy, the final part to my plan. I looked to Jamie and she took out the light blue Chaos Emerald that Dani and the others had found back at the hotel in Kansas. Ivy's green-ish eyes widened to see the sacred gem from the games and TV show, but never knowing she'd actually see that or us changing into our Sonic forms so soon in her life. Her outlook was that of an average tomboy. Her dark brown hair matched the clothes she wore, bright green and black striped, long sleeved shirt, followed by a pair of blue jeans and a pair of black shoes to match. Again, she wondered how she would become like them, and I smirked at the thought. I handed her the emerald and tapped it with my finger to activate her aura. _

_Ivy looked around at herself, now being engulfed in an icy blue aura, then began to glow a bright white color. Her form changed to a smaller form like ours was, her hands becoming black gloves and shoes staying the same color as her gloves. Her hair was the same dark brown, and her eyes had changed to a lighter brown. Her green and black striped shirt stayed the same, but this time longer sleeves to cover most of the gloves from sight, and her blue jeans turned into green ones. But her fur was the most different than everyone else's. It was orange...with black stripes! She hadn't become a hedgehog, echidna, fox, or any of those animals...she had become one of the most feared predators of all time...the tiger. Ivy had become her Sonic self, Ivy the Tiger._

_Her eyes widened, looking down toward her long tiger tail, smiling at the fact that she had transformed into something she loved. Ivy looked back to us and smiled, knowing exactly what she should do for the team. I looked to Jamie and smiled, her smirking back with the thought of more excitement for the next battle with Mephiles or his minions. A long half hour was taken to convince her parents that we needed her help with what we told them. We even proved it by letting Ivy transform and tell them what she was capable of. After another few minutes, we finally left the house with Ivy along side us,_

"_Don't worry, we'll take care of her..." I smiled to her parents while in my human form, then walked out with Jamie and Ivy, listening to them talk about their past events. I stopped and looked to the corner, not seeing any of the team anywhere. My eyes narrowed a bit, then I jumped down from the steps and ran around to the corner, still seeing nothing. I growled. No way in hell they would just run off without telling me. Was it something I had said to make them do so? And what of Trey? He wouldn't leave me behind to do something on my own...it was definitely something worth finding out. _

"_Ivy, what area around here is the biggest one?"_

"_Uhm....that would probably be Lincoln park. A lot of people go there-" But an explosion was heard, interrupting her speech and making me turn around in shock. _

"_Oh great...there's trouble...let's check it out." Jamie and Ivy both nodded, quickly transforming to their Sonic selves as well as me, following Ivy toward the park, since she knew the fastest way to get there. We finally landed feet first in the park known as Lincoln Park. My eyes widened to see a very familiar hedgehog on the other side of it, his deep red fur suddenly turning a dark purple color, followed by huge amounts of pure dark energy consuming the whole park. I finally realized who that particular hedgehog was. _

"_A-Ark?! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOIN' ON?!" My voice filled up the whole park, getting the attention of the rest of the team as well as the dark hedgehog._

"_About time you showed up, Liz! Get yourself over here and keep your boyfriend under control!" Shouted Andrew from under a tree, having been shot onto it by a blast from Ark's Destiny Destroyer. I blinked, looking toward the hedgehog of who I thought was Ark._

"_What in the world happened to you...Trey, STOP THIS!" The hedgehog turned his look toward me and smirked, fangs showing from inside his mouth._

"_I am not Trey....I am not Ark....you really are dense aren't you, girl....hmhmhm...." He smirked more, eyes suddenly glowing a dark indigo color. Not another second later, Jamie's eyes narrowed and she quickly jumps out of the way of another blast of the Destiny Destroyer, almost nicking my side with the remaining energy. I spun around from the next blast and charged toward Ark with smoke coming out from under my feet. My hands came together and a short circuit like aura surrounded my hands, then lunging it toward the hedgehog. Before I could even get any closer, Jamie's voice was heard from across the park,_

"_LAUREN HOLD IT! DON'T TOUCH HIM!" I suddenly stopped, eyes wide, then jumped up high in the air, avoiding the punch from Ark the next second. Landing about fifty yards away, I looked back to Jamie with a glare._

"_What the hell was that all about?!" _

"_Something's different about his power...if you touch him he'll be able to take over your body just like he did to Ark! You're not safe around him!" Ark chuckled to this and smirked toward me,_

"_Ooh, how right you are, Powers.... Hmhmhm.... My name is Astral...the Paranormal genius...." The smirk grew, striking fear into my eyes once more. If this was the spirit's doing...to take over my beloved and turn him against me, there was nothing I could do._

"_W-What now..." I stepped back a few steps, Astral doing the same._

"_Once I come into contact with you, it will be all over...hmhmhm...you will be mine, and I'll get the recognition I deserve from Master Mephiles..." Astral raised the same hand as before to fire yet again, another Destiny Destroyer toward me, the hand having a huge magenta colored gauntlet wrapped around his wrist. I dove out of the way and somersaulted further, sitting on one knee and hand, glaring at the hedgehog._

"_You had better release Trey right now...or you'll be SORRY!" I stood up and growled. Ivy, Nicky, Andrew, Dani and Jamie coming up behind me._

"_Hahahahaha....how weak minded you are..."_

"_If we're weak minded...why have you taken over one of our teammates?!" Shouted Ivy as her tiger tail lashed from side to side._

"_You do not know? Hmhmhm...how quaint...your 'friends' mind was filled with anger...distracting him from what was supposed to be done for your so called 'team.' With this I was able to take him over with no problem...and you my dear Lauren...are next. HAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed evilly, filling the rest of the field with even more, but was soon interrupted by a bright flash of yellow light. He stopped, consuming the rest of the energy to recharge himself, but saw no signs of me anywhere. He could only see the team standing there scanning the area for me. _

"_Huh?! Where are you, Berry?!"_

"_...You really are the weak minded one here aren't you?" Two arms, human ones at that had been wrapped the neck and torso of the hedgehog, Astral. He growled, but then smirked, _

"_How foolish! You sprang right into my- WHAT?!" I grabbed tighter, smirking toward one of my teammates, who had somehow frozen the arms and legs of Astral._

"_N-NOW IVY! FREEZE HIM!" I quickly let go of the hedgehog, letting him be frozen in place, then kicked him in the back of the head, forcing him to fall to the ground. It was now time for Ivy to shine._

_Her hands raised into the air, the light blue emerald appearing above her hands. Having no abilities created for this character of hers, she decided to take what was around her and take it to her advantage. All the snow that was around her had been lifted into the air and thrown on top of Astral, freezing his whole body onto the ground, except for his head. Astral grunted and growled, attempting to break free of this ice, but failed. I stumbled back, having a bit of his roaming dark energy burning into my human skin, but I winced, looking down at him with one eye open. _

"_...H-Hehe...just one more thing Ivy...can ya handle it?" I smirked. Ivy nodded too and smirked back, knowing exactly what to do. She stepped up to Astral and clapped her hands together, then placed them on his head. His body began to glow a bright blue._

"_G-Guh...n-no...no! NOOOO! GYAAAAH!" He shouted so loud, it almost sounded like a screech, then a sudden burst of magenta aura had come out of Ark's body, forming into that of another hedgehog floating in the air. His fur was the same black color as Mephiles, but each stripe was that of a dark magenta, a slight aura giving off each of his quills. The same gauntlet that was seen before was still on his right hand, it also emitting the same aura. Once Ark was out cold, he quickly deformed back to human, Trey laying there on his side, unfrozen and unmoving for the time. Astral growled at the sight and floated backward, suddenly disappearing from the sight, but his words echoed around us all,_

"_You may have defeated me this time, Berry...but mark my words, I WILL have your body for my own...as well as Mephiles...AHAHAHAHAHA!" His laugh finally faded, and I took no less time to kneel down to Trey, trying to wake him up. Ivy and the rest deformed and walked up as well, hoping to see if their brother was okay. Trey grunted and started to open his eyes, first thing seeing was me hovering over him, keeping his head elevated under the hoodie I had on, leaving nothing but a white t-shirt underneath. I smiled and helped him sit up, my body still burnt from the energy of Astral. Trey looked to me and blinked,_

"_Wha....what just happened..."_

"_You don't remember all that?.... You kicked our asses until Lauren, Ivy, and Jamie showed up..."_

"_...I did...?" He wondered, holding his head._

"_Yeh...but without Ivy's help you wouldn't be sitting here..." I replied. Trey looked up to Ivy and nodded, smiling a bit. Ivy folded her arms in front of her body and smiled back,_

"_Happy to help, bro."_

"_Seriously, Ivy...that was some amazing power...I thought you didn't have any abilities for your character?" Nicky asked as Ivy handed me the Chaos Emerald._

"_I thought I didn't, but I guess ice, snow and anything like that is my specialty now." She shrugged and scratched the back of her head._

"_So...now that there's another team member added...who are we gonna get next?" Wondered Dani as she placed her hands in the pockets of her jeans. I looked to Trey and then everyone else, pausing for the answer, but I closed my eyes and finally spoke,_

"_Better be ready for this next one guys...because we're heading to Brooklyn, New York..." Everyone's eyes widened, knowing that New York would be a tough city to find our next member._

"_Let's hope Ashleigh doesn't have much to do when we get there..."_


	9. Chapter 9

Lauren the Echidna Volume 3

Chapter 9

Psycho Hybrid

Long day. Just one long day. The whole hours of the morning, the team and myself were trying to make our way through New York, searching for the semi final member. With so many noises all around us, it was hard to hear each other at times, since most of us talked softly. That said, we all split up in two groups, looking for the one house we needed for our next recruit.

We come up on the city of Brooklyn, where many houses around us were just as beautiful as the city itself. Trees all around had their leaves turned red, orange, yellow and some still green from the remaining summer heat. It was again chilly here in Brooklyn, but not as cold as North Dakota, even though I loved the cold, I didn't care.

Walking behind me and with determined expressions, was Trey, Jamie and Dani. In the other group was of course Andrew, Nicky, and Ivy, who had taken the other side of the sidewalks of the city, keeping an eye on the things that we couldn't see on our side.

"So...is this next chick supposed to be close?" Jamie wondered as she placed her hands in her M&M Jacket pockets.

"Yeh...she's one of my closest sisters. I've known her for at least a year just like everyone else."  
"Except for me..." Trey interrupted.

"...Oh yeh, right." I scratched the back of my head and looked ahead, hearing my name being called by Nicky.

"Hey! I think we found Ashleigh's house!"Nicky waved to us, urging us to come to the other side. We patiently waited for the light to change on these busy streets, then crossed the roads without having to transform and freak anyone out from the creatures we turn into. I ran up to Nicky, conversing on how we could convince Ashleigh and her parents to let her come with us, but we already knew it would be tough. I thought for another moment, but stopped after coming up with an idea. Walking toward the house, Trey asked if he could tag along this time. I agreed and walked with him up the steps to a local house that was just as beautiful as the rest. It was at least a two story house, since there was an upstairs light on from the window, so we assumed it was Ashleigh's room. I knocked on the door and waited with Trey, talking with him about what we should do.

As we waited, we pondered for another moment, not realizing that there was a sudden thud inside the house. I reached for the door and it pushed open. My eyes narrowed, as well as Trey's, then he looked to the team, urging them to follow slowly, knowing there was something going on inside. I was the first one inside, constantly peeking around each corner and doorway there was in the house, but seeing nothing. Our search then went upstairs, I urged the team to stay downstairs for the time, just in case, then made my way upstairs toward a hallway. Again, I peeked around each doorway and was careful as possible. I stopped, the creaking of the wooden floor made it hard to move around quietly, which in turn made me hear another thud happening toward the edge of the hallway.

My footsteps got quicker, finally entering the room where the loud thud was coming from. As soon as I entered that room, a large crashing sound was heard and seen by the hands of a hedgehog figure standing there, cornering to what seemed to be a young sixteen year old girl. Without warning, and considering the consequences of what I was going to do next, I shouted out the girl's name and cautioned the hedgehog to step away. The hedgehog looked like Mephiles from behind, but once I noticed the deep green zig zag markings on his quills, I knew it wasn't him...but another element clone. My eyes narrowed as I rushed into the room, lunging my now spiked fist into the back of the hedgehog's head, but come to get it caught in a sudden bright emerald green vine that had come out of the ground.

"AH! WHAT THE?!" I growled, trying to struggle and strangle the vine to let me go, but no such luck. From all that shouting and crashing sounds, the team finally ran upstairs to where I was in that small room, and if they had transformed or have done anything to get closer, then the new hedgehog would stop at nothing to get rid of me and the girl sitting there, out of her mind scared. She didn't take the hedgehog's tone too well, though...

"Hmhmhm...so you're the little human who's been causing trouble to my brothers..." I growled again, still struggling to get free, leaving the team to ponder what to do to free us both.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked Dani with a serious tone to her voice.

"Hmph...my name is Weed...Master of Nature...now...you will do as I say, or I will kill the girl..." He smirked, showing glistening fangs underneath his upper mouth. Weed glared toward the girl, then back to me and the team.

"Ngh...what do you want from us..." I said as the vines got tighter around my body. Trey couldn't bear to see me getting hurt by these vines, so he tried to step forward, but Weed spotted him moving and tightened them more, also holding up a sharp vine to Ashleigh's throat. She froze in place and I growled more from the pain.

"I advise you not to move another step...the only thing I want right now is the Chaos Emerald that you have on you..." Weed looked toward Ivy and noticed a light blue shining dot coming from inside of the bag she held around her waist. Weed smirked and suddenly let the vines release me and the other move away from Ashleigh, only to have one sharp one heading right for Ivy. My eyes widened and I shouted her name in shock. Weed's vines had cracked like a whip, knocking Ivy off her feet and wrapping around her. But since the vines cracking was so powerful, it blew a hole in the wall behind her, revealing the outside and the ground below. We all gasped, seeing Ivy as the next victim of Weed's attack.

"No! Leave her out of this!" I shouted in anger, as I charged for the vine to help my sister out. Weed knew this moment would come. He smirked and gripped his hand forward, letting a windy blade course through the vine and snap the bag in half, while the other few blades had hit both me and Ivy, causing us to hit the ground. As I helped Ivy up off the ground, she quickly transformed to her tiger self and stood firmly.

"This isn't gonna be easy...we need to get Ashleigh out of there..." I nodded in agreement and jumped back up into the house with Ivy, only to find that the rest of the team was already launching Weed out of the house and into the middle of the street, causing cars and trucks to skid in their place.

Since Andrew had the upper hand at this point, he was continuously blasting the nature based hedgehog with many flamed orbs and firing metal pieces from random abandoned cars that he had formed into spikes of metallic destruction and engulfed them in fire. There was a bigger move he wanted to try, but he decided to save it for the final fight, since Nicky urged him not to use it.

Weed just kept his smirk, even though he was getting singed, he knew there was one last thing he could do to get what he wanted behind that building. That lone sky blue Chaos Emerald was just sitting there in the open, being ignored by the rest of the team members, including me, since we didn't see the emerald being dropped onto the ground. I swiped up my fist under Weed's chin, uppercutting him with a short blast of electricity, shortly throwing another one of the same element, but had it caught by another vine up from the ground. I grunted, trying to pull away, but Weed had other plans. He jumped over our heads, landing shortly behind Jamie, who had quickly turned around to land a punch, but was swatted away into a taxi car with no problem.

Things seemed impossible with this character, but one thing was for sure, someone was prepared for this battle. The same black haired girl who was once a victim of the hedgehog's traps, had now gotten a hold of the Chaos Emerald, knowing exactly what she had to do. A bright white light had engulfed the surrounding area, forcing us to cover our eyes from the brightness. As I lowered my hand, everyone noticed an average slim, but anthropomorphic cat and wolf like creature standing before Weed.

Her fur was as white as the snow in winter, and eyes as brown as Hershey's Chocolate. Her ears were pointed upward, being slightly covered by her chestnut brown hair, since it was shown as black, but since the light was shining on it, it looked brown. Her eyes narrowed as the wind slowly blew through the battlefield, us all being in awe of what we saw.

Her outfit had resembled that of a psychic, having a band around her hair, keeping most of it back, but leaving long bangs covering one of her eyes. A lavender purple colored sash was tied around a silk, dark purple shirt with sleeves that reached to her elbows, connecting a dark purple skirt with that same shirt. But under that skirt was a pair of black knee length shorts, followed by a pair of dark purple boots with a lavender stripe going all the way down both, almost like Amy's boots.

Weed was unimpressed at first, knowing his need for that emerald was a first for his master, so he just smirked and launched to large bright green vines up from the ground and toward the new Ashleigh the Hybrid Cat. Ashleigh knew this would be a challenge, but didn't back down one bit. She jumped up high and flipped forward through the vines that were about to encase her, but as she fell, a faint lavender glow had sliced through both vines, rendering them useless. She landed with grace, her cat like tail flicking from side to side, letting the other team members watch as the two vines were sliced into dust particles. Weed turned right around and sent more and more vines that had surrounded the whole team, this time larger than usual. We all backed up to each others' backsides and glared to each vine.

"Hmph...some cheap trick, Weed...why don't you just tell me what Mephiles really wants?!"

"Do you not know by now, girl? He wants you dead, that's what. But he wants that job for himself. He calls it his 'personal kill.' Even though I could kill you and your friends here and now, he forbids it." Weed smirked and raised one of his fingers toward me and a special vine that was forged with the darker side of polluted nature had wrapped around me, pulling me away from my team. Ark's hand had reached out to grab mine, but missed from the amount of speed of the entrapment. I grunted and struggled as much as I could, but felt a pulse of dark lightning go through my body. Shouting in so much pain was hard for me since the breath was being squeezed out of me, so I just grunted and shook from side to side from the shivering surge of lighting.

"Alright, that's it...I'm takin' control of this operation. Ash, go free Lauren while we take care of Weed." Andrew ordered, pointing toward the hedgehog. Ashleigh nodded and headed for the vine, slicing through the vine with the same psychokinesis she used before and set me free, allowing Ark to catch me in the midst. Ashleigh looked back, seeing many more vines had been created do deal with them while Weed himself was fighting aginst the blazing fire of the brown hedgehog. Jamie was impressed by their powers: Fire here, music there, psychokinesis, the most pure of aura, ice, a shield that can't be shattered, lightning, and her own Chaos Energy in the mix.

"NICKY, PULL HIM DOWN!" Andrew shouted. Nicky jumped into the air, her fur blowing in the wind surrounding her, and summoned the same blue energy guitar, beginning to play it as she was held up on a multi colored disc by Dani, and rocking out to a song she loved the most. Its blasting notes of energy had headed for Weed's arms and legs, pinning him to the ground, but he had quickly broken the two on his arms, sending more vines her way. Nicky jumped out of the way and from behind her, Jamie charges forward and uppercuts Weed on his jaw, sending him out from under the pinning notes, and into the air.

"He's all yours, fire hog." Jamie crossed her arms and looked up through her sunglasses, watching as Andrew leaped up high into the air, sending a huge amount of fire based spikes that rained down on top of Weed's body, scorching him to a point where he was unable to move when he was slammed into the ground.

Dani looked around for an opportunity to strike, when Ashleigh shouted her name, showing that there was a few more large vines heading straight for her, Ark, and myself. Dani dashed toward where the vines were placed and raised up three walls of multi colored barriers that quickly shattered into spires, piercing through the vines with no problem, forcing them to the ground, useless and immobile.

"Nice one Dani!" Ashleigh smiled as she and Dani grasped each other in a hug, watching as Andrew finished off Weed. But this wasn't as easy as we thought. With Ashleigh's keen eyes, she looked closer and noticed something behind Andrew getting closer and closer.

"DREW, LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!"

"Huh? What th- GUH!" He shouted in pain from an even larger vine slamming down on top of hit back, sending him into the ground on top of Jamie, leaving them both unconscious in a crater below. Weed looked to them and sent a few more vines with the swing of his hand, slamming all of us into the ground, including my scorched body. Weed laughed as he limped toward Ashleigh, who had deformed to her human body along with the rest of us, picking up the sky blue emerald and gripping it in his hand.

"You're pathetic team is just too easy, Lauren..." He began as he limped toward me. My eyes slowly glanced toward him, still unable to move from the shock.

"If you are as strong as they say you are...then why haven't you released Solaris' power yet..." His eyes narrowed as he tossed the emerald up and down in his hand, his body slowly regaining health from the emerald's aura.

"Y-You...have no idea...hehehe...we'll get you for sure...when...we get those emeralds back..." But my cockyness was interrupted by a kick to my head, finally leaving me unconscious and face down on the cold hard street grounds.

If this guy was strong...wonder what the next few clones were like...


	10. Chapter 10

_Lauren the Echidna_

_Chapter 10_

_Scorched Dreams_

_"What seemed to be a large car wreck down the middle of the Brooklyn's streets, it seems more than that. Witnesses say they spotted a group of creatures fighting with what looked like large vines, fire, psychic powers, and lightning. Our rescources say that..."_

_As the news continued on, a local boy in Bayfield, Wisconsin, overheard these words and found it impossible to believe. The boy looked to be about fifteen, getting closer to his sixteenth year. His hair was a chocolate colored brown, but the usual length that any fifteen year old's hair would be. His glasses covered across both his deep brown eyes, the glare from it showing the reflection of the TV he was watching, where he noticed all of my team collapsed on the ground, now being transferred to a local hospital where all of us would recover. _

_The boy's eyes narrowed. He knew exactly who these people were, and wanted to find a way to come and help. Well, he already knew in his head that his parents wouldn't want to just up and go to New York, so he had to find another way. What he couldn't believe that the next moment, he saw his beloved Ivy laying there on a two seated couch, resting her head, as she was the one first to wake up. Several officials had startled her when she awoke, but came to find out that she was laying right next to another one of the team members, then another...then another. _

_All of the team had been taken into the waiting room of a hospital...except for one. Ivy looked around, waking up the rest of the team from their unconscious state by healing each one. The police were startled after peeking in again, but just talked it over as a few more policemen had ran toward another room. Nicky woke up and noticed she was right underneath Andrew, who had already sat up, rubbing his head from the impact of Weed's vines. Jamie was then to follow when she had peeked out of the room to see where the other policemen were headed._

_A few thuds had been heard from that very room, policemen being slammed up against the walls. Shouting had also been heard coming from the room. The voice sounded so familiar, so one of the others had walked out of the room, but was stopped by the captain of the police force._

_"No one is allowed in that room...that girl in there is insane."_

_"Girl...what girl?" Asked Jamie with her always serious voice._

_"Some blonde headed girl thinks that she can handle the police in this situation._

_Blonde haired girl. They all knew it was me, but why would I be going crazy inside that room? Only one way to find out. The team turned away from the captain and finally got past him by Trey pinning him up against the wall to let them pass. Trey smirked and pushed the captain away while he followed up behind. As they entered the room, the expected the unexpected. The wall of the hospital room had been destroyed, and I was nowhere to be found. Andrew, who was standing in the front of the group, looked back to them and urged the team to follow him in pursuit. _

_Everyone transformed to their animal selves, jumping, running, and flying from above and below, searching frantcially for my whereabouts. Drew's blue eyes shifted upward to Dani, who was placing a hand over her eyes to block the sun of mid-day, and would shout,_

_"Yo, Dani! Any sign of her yet?"_

_"Hmm...huh? Yeah! I see her, straight ahead!" Drew's ears twitched as he looked forward, spotting the yellow haired head of me, my body curled up as if it was being attacked. I was sitting up on my knees, but my head hung straight down, shivering in fear. Ark deformed to his human self, Trey walked up close to me as everyone else kept their forms. _

_"Lauren? Hey...you okay-?" But while reaching for my hand, I quickly swatted it away, shouting,_

_"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" My voice had gotten raspy. Body shaking, eyes wide and pupils gone, only showing my lime green colored eyes. Trey blinked, trying the same gesture again, but this time, it was too far. I began to raise my hand up, glaring at Trey with such anger that there was something I couldn't control. His eyes widened as everyone shouted his name to move, but something even more happened..._

_"I told you to- GUH!" I was quickly swatted away by a red blur, but with a bit of black mixed in with it. I grunted and was now facing downward onto the ground before the team. Drew looked up ahead and saw someone he didn't believe had made it there._

_With his yellow eyes, this red hedgehog's look was unlike any other. With his hands covered in what was now black gloves with the fingers white, he flicked the two bangs out of the way and smirked, straightening his new black sleeveless hoodie. On that hoodie was that of an emblem that resembled his power of fire, and is usually known as the Flaming Wind of the Sonic universe. The hoodie's outline was of course red, but the same crimson red as his fur. Below this hoodie was a pair of dark blue jeans, but this time he had a longer chain wrapped about his belt loop, having quite a surprise waiting in the pocket of those jeans. Along with black and white tennis shoes covering his feet, the hedgehog left the ground at a decent speed, reaching his fist back to knock me in the side, keeping me down onto the ground. The boy, knowing him as Jeff, had become his self character, Scorch the Hedgehog. Since this was not a good thing for me, I got even angrier, but the red hedgehog had other plans._

_"Yo, Drew. A bit of help would be of some use, huh?" He smirked back toward the brown hedgehog and stepped aside._

_"Hehe...with pleasure." He took a few steps forward and reached his arm out. Drew's arm began to glow a solid gray and white color, forming the elements around him to form a decently large piece of metal on his hand that grew up to his elbow. Rocky spikes began to merge into the metal, creating a guantlet that was shining brightly off the sun above, causing a few of the team members to cover their eyes. Around these spikes was of course small sparks of fire, since he couldn't resist giving it a bit of a show-offy sight, and raised it above my head. His eyes dropped slightly and he stared toward me, watching as my eyes were narrowed angrily trying to get up from the recent hit._

_"I'm sorry I gotta do this, sis...but you leave me no choice...HAH!" Thud. That's what all was heard. Everything was black at this point. Nothing was heard in my head. Just...black. _

_But what...what's this? I saw a figure...a figure that resembled that same dark apparition that keeps haunting me._

_Mephiles. He's just there standing in the middle of this...dream? Wait...I'm asleep? All I could remember was fighting against that clone, Weed...then everything went black. But a nightmare had come to me a few minutes afterward. Mephiles and his clones were all around me. In numbers, even in an army. They only left me a small circle as the closest ones to me were of the seven Chaos Emerald's elements, in Mephiles' cloned form. In the middle...was Mephiles himself. Smirking. Laughing. Snickering and who knows what else. And this happened again. The same dream, but this time, it started to fade. Someone...is calling me? I hear my name being spoken. But it's so faint. Why is it so faint? It's nowhere over me. I could finally feel my body moving. My arms and legs weren't though. I was...being held back? But from what? I started to calm down slightly, giving the two boys who had me more room to get me to sit down._

_"G-Guh..." I panted from the struggle. Andrew and now Jeff, who had just reverted back to his human state, both had me from around my arms, helping me to sit down._

_"I think she's coming to..."_

_"Hey, sis...you're okay now...just take it easy..."_

_"Lauren!" Finally the third boy who was let into the room, Trey, looked to the two in shock and worry. Andrew nodded to Trey, telling him that I was going to be alright. Trey agreed and kneeled down to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I shivered slightly to his touch, but finally realized that it was him and not who I thought it was. I took a breath and looked up to him, my green eyes now back to normal, but looking really tired. As Trey continued to calm me down, outside of the hospital, all of my friends had just laughed at a sight of Ivy glomping her beloved Jeff and gripped him in a tight hug, almost playfully choking him. Jeff picked her up on his back and held her there, finally smiling back at her after she had let go. Ivy was of course happy to finally see 'her Jeff' as she would say, and just leaned on his shoulder as Andrew asked the most simple question,_

_"Alright, how the fuck did you get here, Jeff?"_

_"Heh...funny story. I was planning on asking my parents about taking me all the way out here to Brooklyn, but...I knew it would be a longshot, so at first I let it go, knowing that you guys could handle it. But I also found something that would ensure me to help you guys out no matter what it took." As he let Ivy down from his shoulders, he reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out what seemed to be..._

_"A Chaos Emerald?!" Said the team except for Jamie, since she wasn't as in awe as the rest of them. Jeff nodded and spun the yellow colored emerald on his finger, being talented in such a thing, then smirked, catching it finally._

_"Yep. Found it in the chicken coop as I was feedin' them." He chuckled. Andrew smirked and crossed his arms, about to speak, but Nicky interrupted, spotting something odd about the emerald._

_"Hey...what's up with the Chaos Emerald?" She wondered, pointing to it. The emerald had been shining brightly, but it slowly dimmed down and suddenly lost it's color entirely. _

_It's color had been taken away, but it didn't last too long. Above the team, out popped a bright yellow aura that slowly formed to that of a hedgehog body. All of the team gasped in surprise, as Jeff quickly took the emerald and put it away to prevent anything from happening to it, since they knew that it was yet another one of Mephiles' clones. They all stepped back several steps, but were all suddenly blown back by a huge shockwave of lightning, sending them into either the ground or trees. This seemed all too familar in battle, but they got right back up, wanting more of this fight. Without the help of two of their members, they had to wing it on their own while Trey and I got things settled with whatever I was freaking out about. _

_The hedgehog quickly formed after another second and began to laugh meniacally, almost like a psycho. His bright light yellow eyes had glazed across the entire battlefield, his smirk following his eerie laughing with fangs and a long yellow tongue hanging out. This one was indeed creepy._

_His quills were longer than the other clones, one almost hanging down to the edge of where his tail was, the other five pointing upward like Mephiles' usual quills. He smirked and laughed down toward the team and just swiped his hand across the first group, who was Ashleigh, Dani, and Nicky, once again getting shocked by his high voltage. Andrew dodged to the side of one attack and growled, quickly transforming to his hedgehog self, shouting his love's name in worry afterward. Nicky stood up to her feet and her eyes narrowed, clearly pissed after most of her hair was frizzy and out of place. She shook her head, fixing her hair and trasnforming to her hedgewolf form. As the others did the same, the lightning based clone laughed more. He apparently admired everyone's guts. Once he finally began to speak, his voice had a higher quality to it, but just as creepy and slurred out._

_"Heeeeheheheheheee! What bravery, children! I almost wanna cry because of all this love going around. EEHEEHEE! BUT SADLY, I DO NOT CARE! BOW TO THE HANDS OF BLITZ!" His hands clapped together toward the same group, ignoring the group behind him, who had already devised a plan to take him down. Now that his name was revealed, they're banter to help the determination would help a lot more._

_"Alright, Blitz...TAKE THIS!" Scorch's hands had ablazed with nothing but hot red and red orange fire, and thrusting them forward, slamming the sides of his fists together. Two beams of fire had been fired out of his fists, the two suddenly swirling together to create a tornado beam that was easily burning most of Blitz's quills, leaving him to float there and snicker from the pain._

_"EEHEEHEE! How quaint. A fire based hedgehog. That hurt, you little rat..." His eyes suddenly narrowed, as well as his smirk turning into a frown. His hands clapped together once more, creating another shockwave of lightning that had gone right into the path of Scorch's running path, shocking him and bringing him to his knees. Ivy shouted his name in worry, then glared up toward Blitz with her hands already freezing Blitz's surroundings. Several ice shards had appeared, but he was ready for this...at least he thought it was. Blitz backflipped over most of the shards that were fired, but had flipped a few more times, sending out hundreds of needles that were covered in lightning. Ivy's eyes narrowed as she spread her arms out to defend herself and Scorch, but the needles had suddenly frozen in the air. She opened one eye to see one of them right in her face. She blinked and looked to the side, moving away from it and going to help Scorch._

_On the other end of the battlefield, Blitz looked back to see huge metallic spikes that were brought up from the ground by our team member, Drew. His metal bending had created the spikes, along with Nicky standing beside, guitar in hand, giving the spikes energy to absorb the needles and attract the lightning. Blitz was amazed, he never knew that kids like this could have such power. It didn't stop him for a moment, he surrounded himself in a wave of electricity and laughed once more, but was interrupted by another blast of fire. He grunted from the pain and looked back to see Scorch and Ivy preparing an attack of their own._

_ Scorch smirked as he held a hand behind him, an orb of pure fire in hand, while Ivy was covering the orb with the freezing aura around it, but not enough for the chemicals inside to explode...yet. Blitz knew exactly what was happening, but he couldn't let it happen. Once again, he threw his hands together, copying the move that Scorch used earlier, but this time with electricity beams spiraling down toward them. In a quick flicker of Chaos Control, Jamie and Dani appeared in front of them, Jamie giving the energy, and Dani creating the barrier. Her hands were raised, feeling the electricity course through the shield, it slowly moving it's way towards them all. Jamie gave the shield more energy and smirked, pushing the shield forward with Dani's help to knock Blitz off his balance and fall to the ground. He shook his head. What power, he thought. But...as he stood to his feet and stumbling, next thing he knew he was shot in the face straight on with the shouting of Scorch and Ivy's attack, _

_"MIST BLAST!" As the two lunged forward into the face of the clone, a large explosion was seen and heard from a mile away. Blitz raised his arms at the last second and shouted loudly in pain, and was blown back into the ground, leaving a crater underneath. His being was still there, but was able to escape at a moments notice. From out of the mist surrounding him, was Scorch's fist grabbing him by his throat. Blitz gagged from his tight grip, but smirked at Scorch's now glaring eyes. *End 1*_

_"Eeeheeheehee! You think you're so tough! You'd better be glad I didn't get to that Berry girl...her power and fear shall soon become Master Mephiles' ULTIMATE WEAPON! EEHEEHEEHEE!" He snickered louder and began to phase into nothing but solid electric needles on the ground before them. Scorch narrowed his eyes to their limit and stomped on top of them, forcing them to dissipate into nothing. Scorch returned to his human form, dropping to one knee in the crater, while Ivy and the others ran up to congratulate him on his victory. Ashleigh walks up, having felt that she did nothing got her down, but Jeff smiled toward her and stood to his feet, comforting her that she helped no matter what she was doing. Ashleigh nodded as she and the rest deformed to human and then looked back to the hospital._

_"So...should we go back and check on Lauren?" Ashleigh wondered._

_"We should...but now we gotta ask her why the fuck did she really need us all to help her. If she was able to do all this with Knuckles back then...why would she need all of us to come with her this time?" The team looked to Andrew in confusion. They all pondered for a moment, but finally Jamie spoke up,_

_"Yeah, that's true. But why don't we think about it before we start assuming shit we don't know." She looked to Andrew especially, knowing all his weak points by now about things such as this. Andrew glared to her and just looked away._

_"Hmph...we won't find out until we ask her, Jamie. I think it's worth a shot." He looked to Nicky, who had already let her eyes drop slightly, not really liking the idea. Then Andrew glanced to everyone else. The only one who seemed to agree was Dani. Since she would usually follow the ones she thought was right, she believed that there was something more to this than they thought. Finally the rest of the team agreed._

_If there was more than this, the team would need answers. Now that everyone is together in one place, they would need a plan to be ready for Mephiles' next attack, or the clones' attack._

_But in the shadows of the battlefield...someone had been watching their efforts...and was ready to exploit them for what they really were..._


	11. Chapter 11

Lauren the Echidna

Chapter 11

We Want Answers!

It was hard for me to explain what was going on to the locals of Brooklyn, but after hours of explanation to several people of the press, my team and I finally left Brooklyn and, at our own pace, returned to...well...we didn't know. Wherever that was safe was the main priority at this point. Nothing could change how I acted back there, and nothing could change how much I had kept secret from my teammates. I did mention to them what the dream was about, but they had also questioned me about why I had gathered them all in a week's time, each day having been a nightmare for all of us. None of us really wanted this stuff to happen for real...at least I didn't. Everyone else had a great time being their Sonic selves, but this was more than becoming a fan character. It was a matter of life and death. Of fear and bravery. Of...anything else I could think of to make up an excuse to my team.

After another hour of traveling, we had taken a break at the very borderline of New York and Pennsylvania, finding a small town to settle down from the recent battles and hopefully get our morale up. Jamie, Andrew, Nicky, Trey, Dani, Ashleigh, Ivy, and Jeff were all having a good time at a local pizza parlor, while I was off sitting on the bench that was placed in front of it. After awhile of waiting for pizza, Trey finally comes up to me, offering me some pizza on a plate he had brought over for me, but I refused. He shrugged and ate the piece while asking me what was wrong.

What was wrong...he should have known by now.

"Trey, all of you asked me why I gathered you guys...and I answered...I got you all together to help me defeat Mephiles, and now you all are thinkin' it was a bad thing." I said, leaning forward, resting my arms on my legs. My head was low, hair covering my left eye from Trey's view. He swallowed a piece of the pizza then placed a hand on my shoulder,

"Hun, you know I'm not dissing you because of this...and I'm not agreeing with what Drew said."

"Oh yeah? Then why is everyone but you and Jamie agreeing?"

"Well, that's them...they're just...well, I guess they're scared. All this just happened so quickly that-"

"That's not the point, Trey! They all have something against me and it's because of Solaris being trapped inside me. If my fear grows, Solaris will be released and we won't be able to stop it!" I stood to my feet and began to walk away. Trey called my name, starting to follow, but I just glared back toward the team and vanished in a yellow flash of Chaos Control. There were no witnesses so we were okay with no scattering of people.

I couldn't bear the fact that all my fellow teammates hadn't believed what I said about Solaris, Mephiles, and everything else. Maybe all this was really a dream after all. Mephiles has his moments of lying and tricking people...but I guess this time he was telling the truth about my life. Everything that happened in the 'past'...wasn't true at all. At least that's just what I thought. It felt like my heart was torn apart from all the events that have happened. Thinking back, I realized that every life that I brought into this war against myself...was pretty much ruined.

As I walked the lonely and abandoned streets, I kept my hands inside my hoodie pockets, keeping warm from the chilly winds blowing all around me. I looked up to the mid-day skies...clouds as puffy as they were back in my hometown during days like this, but then looked back down after accidentally bumping into a local of that town.

"Oh...sorry about that, ma'am." I began.

"...You should be sorry...you've already brought enough trouble to our country...you need to get control of yourself and those 'friends' of yours." And with that the woman walked away, wrapping her fur coat around herself to keep warm. I sighed. So much for being polite.

My walk continued for about a half hour, enough time for the rest of the team to finish their pizza and starting their search for me. Of course I didn't want them to find me at the time, since I knew they couldn't stand the sight. If this power of Solaris is really needed of Mephiles, why doesn't he just do what he needs to and get it overwith? So many questions had veered inside my head. I just wanted real answers as to if all those events with Knuckles and the others were real or not.

"Lauren?"

"Lauren!"

"Where are you?"

"Lauren, answer us!"

"...She won't answer you..." Finally a voice that shut them up. Everyone looked back to Trey. He had his head lowered, hands in his pockets and teeth grit as if he was angry. Ashleigh walked up to him to try and comfort him, but he pulled away, glancing away from them all.

"Trey...what's wrong..."

"You know exactly what's wrong, Ash..."

"Tell us cuz we're clueless." Replied Andrew.

"Well, there' s no surprise there..." Andrew glared at Trey from this comment, knowing he could insult horribly if pissed off enough. Trey just glared back, but somehow darker than what Andrew could ever do. He backed off and just looked away, once again asking what was wrong.

"The reason she left awhile ago is because you guys are dissing her..."

"Dissing her? For what?" Asked Dani.

"Yeah...doesn't seem like we have anything to piss her off." Jeff agreed.

"Lauren told me that you guys hate her for bringing you all out here to fight someone that we all know is trouble...and she doesn't believe that she deserves to be even part of the team anymore." As Trey went on, the team looked to each other in dismay. They were now worried for their fellow teammate and sister. From what Trey explained, it seemed like they were the real enemies. Soon they all went off, searching more seriously, but this time in their animal forms. Each trying to keep a low profile as much as possible without getting too carried away with transforming in front of other people.

Meanwhile, I had gotten to another town by both walking as a normal human, and by constant transformations from wanting to jump across buildings for the heck of it. I had kept quiet every since I bumped into that woman, not speaking one word. Not even to myself. I wouldn't even think about anything except for what I had told Trey back at the pizza parlor. It was a mystery as to why I was acting this way, but one individual wanted answers.

He wore nothing but a dark brown cloak over himself, but seemed...shorter than the rest of the people there. I had walked by an alley when he spoke my name. His voice was low at the time, maybe because he was speaking softly, but when he began to talk normally, telling me to come to him, his voice got a bit higher in tone, almost sounding like a boy talking.

I blinked and went to him, not thinking of the 'stranger' rule that I grew up with, but for some reason this one was...different. He looked up to me and spoke again,

"Go into your echidna state...it makes it hard to talk to you when I keep looking up." His head was hung lower than mine, keeping the shadows over his face in the same place, and I obeyed his wish and became my yellow-furred self, cleaning my glasses off as usual. The boy had black gloves on, as well as black shoes, hoping to hide his real self. I looked to him closer and narrowed my eyes.

"What is it that you want, stranger..." I crossed my arms and began. "...Not like you can change my mind."

"I'm not trying to change your mind about anything...I'm here to help you, Lauren..."

"And how do you know my name?" I wondered suspiciously.

The boy smirked underneath his hooded cloak and raised his hand up to me, urging me to raise mine up as well. I proceeded to do so, and both our hands began to glow a bright teal green, showing a circle marking, followed by two vertical lines connecting it going down our gloves. My eyes blinked and then widened, looking to his face. His yellow eyes finally shown more clearly and he pulled his hood down, revealing the five gray colored quills on his head and the two longer ones sticking out from behind. Hard to believe I didn't notice this at first, but this guy...knew everything. He knew what happened, what Mephiles had done to me, and what I could do to stop him.

"...Silver..." I smiled, trying to hold back tears from my recent days of fighting, finally grasping him in a hug like I would do with anyone else who understood what I was going through. I knew I could trust Silver to tell me what was going on...and I planned to have everything settled by the time I give him the whole story...


	12. Chapter 12

Lauren the Echidna

Chapter 12

Fear Is Nothing

"Silver, I can't believe you're really here..." My arms had finally unwrapped from the hedgehog as he smiled, placing his hands on my shoulders, slowly wiping my few tears away.

"I couldn't stand seeing your life end up this way. I saw everything that's happened so far." Silver replied, his hands lowering down to his sides.

"You did huh...so do you think what I've been doin' is wrong?"

"Not at all. I think what you're doing is smart. Think about it...if you hadn't gotten all your friends in this predicament, you wouldn't even stand a chance against Mephiles."

I knew he was right. It was definitely a good idea to have gotten all my closest friends together to fend off one of my greatest enemies. Silver then frowned after seeing me look away toward the skies out from the alley and would question if I was alright. My eyes dropped slightly, having thought about what my fellow teammates were doing at this time. Silver blinked. He had no clue what to tell me, but what he did know was...he was going to help me in reuniting with my teammates. Silver's tone went from playful to serious,

"Alright, Lauren...let's get back to your team and I'll tell them what's been going on Mephiles' end." I nodded in agreement, transforming back into my human self, and Silver placing the hood over his head again, hiding from the other locals as we traveled out of the alleys. Of course this wasn't easy. Every local we passed had just been staring. What would this girl want to be doing with a four foot tall boy around these streets? Since they didn't know that it was Silver in disguise, we were okay for the time.

On the other side of town, the search for me had continued with my team. Once again, Dani searched from the skies along with Nicky and Ivy, who were leaping from roof to roof, keeping their keen hearing at its best. Ashleigh had allowed herself flight as well, searching the other half of the town, using her telekinetic power to make herself fly. The three hedgehogs had used their own speed to fan out and search from below: Scorch to the right, Ark to the left, and Drew in the front.

The last one to be seen around was Jamie. She had volunteered to go solo, searching the more dense places of the town. The alleys, random bars, and whatever else she could find where I wouldn't be but possibly could be to hide. Like the others, she found nothing. Jamie, while in her echidna form, looked ahead after sensing a sudden spike of power coming from a small house that seemed abandoned.

"Hmm..." She muttered to herself for a moment, debating whether she should check it out or not, but finally decided to check it out. After all there could have been a Chaos Emerald inside. She wouldn't know until she looked. Two steps inside was all that took for her to think,

"Creepy place...cracked walls, chipping paint...no wonder the owners bailed." Her eyes were narrowed, even though she had sunglasses on, she could see perfectly in the dim lit house. The sun was shining through them, giving her at least isome/i light to see, but after a few minutes, she had taken her glasses off, revealing her yellow eyes. Glancing around was no simple task, since half of the house was too dark, but she forced her hand forward creating a hot pink colored light that lit the room up almost like a black light, except it was pink. Since she loved her share of Crime Scene Investigation information, Jamie took it to her advantage and walked upstairs.

Her hand motioned from side to side as she looked, soon placing her sunglasses back on and giving her eyes the chance to adjust once more. A few minutes had passed of looking through this creepy house, and Jamie was becoming impatient.

"Gah...where the fuck is the Chaos Emerald...I can feel the energy from it, but..." Before she could finish her sentence, a voice from somewhere in the house finished it for her,

"Wheeeeere? Ooooh, you teeeease...oohoohoohoo..."

"Huh...who's there? This better not be a joke!" Jamie's eyes narrowed through her sunglasses, able to see things more clearly now. The voice she had heard had echoed through the house constantly. She began to think if she should be worried about herself of still having a right mind of staying in the house instead of trying to walk out.

Jamie turned to take a step toward the staircase, but noticed something shocking. The staircase...was gone. Her expression went from serious to confusion. How could the staircase just up and vanish? But her next move was a bit uncalled for. Her feet left the ground, attempting to jump down from where the lower floor was, but came in contact with an old bookcase that had supposedly been up against the wall from the lower floor. Somehow the walls, or the house itself, had turned over and completely changed her perspective. Jamie was now standing on the side wall, the floor being to her left.

"Okay...what the fuck is going on..." Once again, the voice replies to her question.

"Ooohoohoo! You're a tough one aren't yooooou? I maaaay have to do more damaaaaage to get yoooou to understaaaand...oohoohoohoo!" The voice echoed even more. Jamie wasn't phased by this mockery of her so called fear, and just front flipped off the bookcase and landed on the wall next to a picture frame. She looked down to it, noticing a picture of what looked like a zombie-fied photo of a nurse wearing a mask over her mouth and a nurse's hat over her head. Jamie grunted, looking away from the picture, having a decent hate for hospitals and doctors and what not, but just ignored it. The gravity had finally reverted back to normal, causing Jamie to fall to her left on her arm. She grunted and got back up, rubbing her arm, glancing back toward that photo once again.

"I just don't like it..."

"Ooooh, then yooou'll looove this!" The face of the photo began to move along with the words spoken, causing Jamie to jump back in surprise, now glaring toward the photo. The figure that had been possessing the house was that of a hedgehog. This hedgehog was different than the other ones. Indeed a clone of Mephiles, him having the same quill design, but instead of having black fur, his look was entirely white. White fur, no stripes, white gloves, chest fur, shoes and a ghostly white aura around his entire body. Jamie just stood there, realizing that this was just another minion of Mephiles, but was extremely careful. She already knew what this guy could do, but also knew that he was just plain crazy.

"Okay, who the fuck are you..."

"Oohoohoo...my naaame...is Funhouse...my my, Jaaaamie...you're fear is not as baaaad as the otheeeers...I will have to fix thaaat..." With his slurring speech, his mouth let out another slow but surely annoying screech that caused Jamie's ears to ring. She shook her head and looked ahead again, noticing that Funhouse had disappeared. It was time for her to do something about this guy before the others would find her and get into the same predicament. Jamie knew she was the only one who could handle it, so she had to be quick.

Mirrors had suddenly surrounded her. At least ten of them. She glanced around, seeing several doctors and nurses reflections, all normal. Her teeth grit from the pressure and then she blinked, seeing the next move.

All the doctors and nurses turned their bodies into zombies, heads splitting where the brain would be, stitches appearing on their body, limbs falling off and green blood dripping. Her eyes went from fear to anger.

"Okay, that's it...I gotta finish...huh..." She let out a sigh, eyes closing and hands forming together, palm to palm. Her hands began to glow, but this time, not pink...but green. Green goop had covered her hands completely, followed by a lime green aura around her entire body.

Jamie's eyes had been shown through her sunglasses, revealing them to now be lime green, as if her eyes were made of nothing but ectoplasm goop, usually the type of goop that would be find behind the remains of ghosts. She then smirked, throwing her hands from both sides of her body, launching two ectoplasm rings, followed by a loud screech, shattering each mirror that was around her, forcing the images to disappear as well. Her hands lowered. There was nothing left of the mirrors, but she knew that Funhouse was still in her surroundings.

"Ooohoohoo! Impressive, Jaaamie...buuut I think I've done all I can for nooooow..."

"Oh, no ya don't..." Her eyes flashed lime green once again, revealing Funhouse's location in the house. He gasped and let out another ghostly scream, hoping to get Jamie on her knees, but she had other things in mind.

"I'll be taking that Chaos Emerald now...HMPH!" Both hands were thrust forward in an X formation, firing a X shaped blade of lime green ectoplasm right through the stomach and arms of the ghostly hedgehog. Funhouse screeched in pain, losing both his arms and his mid-section falling off as well, leaving his head floating there and legs standing in the same spot. Jamie smirked and snapped, sending another shockwave at the remains of Funhouse, causing him to dissolve into nothing but a white puddle, his words echoing in the house,

"Ooohohohoooo! We shall meet again Jamie Daaaaawn...we shall meet agaaaaaain!" He was gone. Nothing was left but the white Chaos Emerald laying there in front of Jamie's feet. She picked it up, seeing that its power was at its max as usual, then put it away in the small bag around her waist.

As she walked out of the house finally, the sun had gotten lower in the sky. She never knew that the time had gone by so quickly even though it only seemed like a few minutes with the fight. Now realizing that it was starting to get late, she straightened her sunglasses and walked off. With the sun's orange and dim light shining through the alleys, the glare of her teeth was seen, smirking at the recent battle.

"Never knew these battles would be so exciting...let's just hope that Lauren doesn't get over her head with these clones..." Her smirk turned into a smile as she walked through the town, continuing her search for the team and myself.

With Jamie's mission complete, there was still other things to have taken care of...


	13. Chapter 13

Lauren the Echidna Volume 3

Chapter 13

Nightmare's Never End

After the event with Jamie, the whole gang had finally gotten back together and I explained how things went from the last couple of encounters with Mephiles. Since they had somewhat forgotten what I had gone through with Knuckles, I had to explain it again as if I was actually there. I was there, since I lived it for at least 20 years. With all the memories in my head of all those years, I was still confused as to why Mephiles didn't get rid of them when he ruined my future. At first I wanted it, but now that I'm with the real love of my life, it was hard to get a grasp on what was happening now. My head hung low as I explained it all, having quite a talent of stuttering and not being able to look people in the eyes when explaining something that I'm ashamed of, so I just sat there on a local park bench late at night, speaking my thoughts. Every word...was slurred. Like I wanted this conversation to end before someone would butt in and say something smart.

About an hour had passed in that empty park. Everyone on the team had gone off through the park, speaking to each other, whether it was their love, or one of the members just to have someone to talk to. After my explanation, they needed to think about what to do next. The only one who had stayed behind to try and comfort me was Trey. He sat by my side, as I had my head in his lap, trying to clear my head by going to sleep. His hand stroked through my hair, then to my shoulder, hoping to calm me down from my recent soft sobbing. I couldn't stand telling them that this would be the last thing I wanted for us, but they all seemed to enjoy being someone they weren't able to be before.

Another hour had passed, it now being one in the morning, and all of the team were still awake, still pondering what to do about my actions...and Mephiles. My stuttered breathing had finally slown down, sleeping calmly in Trey's arms, almost falling asleep himself. Andrew and Jeff were standing under a tree nearby, discussing how life has been back in their hometowns, but all stories were pretty much the same. Families being idiots back home, siblings being their annoying selves, the usual in their eyes. As far as I knew, I was the one with no brothers or sisters in real life, but since I met these people, I've had the best family that there ever was in this world.

Even Silver had almost fallen asleep, being so far away from his future was actually starting to worry him. Silver had to leave behind his love, Blaze, in order to straighten out what was happening here on Earth. He did miss his feline gal, but he knew he had a job to do. To destroy Mephiles by helping me seal the power of Solaris away for good. It was still a hard fact to believe...how could a powerful being, or that of a god, be sealed inside just an average teenage girl? No one knew for sure, but it was their mission to find out.

The clenching of my fist had woken Trey up from his short nap, since it was grabbing onto his pants. He sat up and pat me on my shoulder, hoping to wake me up from what looked like that I was having a nightmare. He knew this would be bad, so he shook me a few times and I finally sat up, falling off the bench and onto my knees, suddenly panting heavily. He gasped and knelt down beside me, this also getting the attention of the others, and budged me. My eyes were shut tight, my entire body shaking like it was freezing. Trey's eyes drooped a bit, still trying to get me to snap out of my shaky state. Everyone else ran up to me, but Jeff stopped them, telling them to let us have room so I wouldn't have felt encased. It was then I had started muttering words. Not much to allow them to understand, but enough to know that I was freaking out from a nightmare just like before. They knew...

"We need to get her to calm down now before she-" But before Jeff could utter another word, a sudden flash of yellow had engulfed the entire park, lighting up a few windows here and there from the city buildings. Everyone had blocked their eyes, then after the light had dimmed, the worst had been seen.

"You...will not...take me...YOU WON'T!" Dreadlocks of black had shown before them, flaring upward slightly and flickering on and off with black lightning. The entire team had been blown back away from me with one wave of lightning like there was nothing to it. A smirk came across my face, and from my point of view, I had seen all seven of Mephiles' clones, plus the main one who had plagued all my dreams with this. "With this power, I will destory you once and for all...MEPHILEEEEES!" My shouting transferred into shockwaves, it being my specialty, and caused every member of the team to be thrown back into the ground again, each in a crater deep in the ground. Save for one....

The hot pink echidna glared backward toward me, straightening her sunglasses and cracking her knuckles, stepping toward me. Her eyes had begun to glow lime green once more as in her battle with Funhouse, while mine were just plain black and red. My smirk got wider as I saw Mephiles stepping closer to me. Even though it was Jamie in her animal form, from what I was seeing he was about to dispell a final attack, but what I didn't expect...was a flash from the past.

"So what should we do for the last half hour?" I said as Jamie and I strolled through a theme park known as Busch Gardens. The rides were loud as most of the roller coasters roared overhead, having trouble hearing people around talking to one another. Jamie 'hmm'ed to this and looked around, noticing a small theater that was about to start a thirty minute show of tap dancing. A smirk and laugh came across our mouths as we walked in.

This was...a memory of our band trip to Busch Gardens? How is it that I remember this so randomly? I could hear Jamie's voice from behind, saying my name over and over to tell me something. Her voice was distorted at first, but come to find out I look up with my lime green eyes and widen them to see and hear Jamie speaking of our last year together at my school, Roxboro Christian Academy. But this image soon went away as my eyes snapped back to black and red, soon firing a beam of black lightning right at her, sending her flying across the ground and landing face down, her sunglasses falling off her face in the process.

"Hmhmhmhm...you can never trick me anymore, Mephiles! I have the real power I need to destroy you! I-"

"LAUREN!" Jamie growled, standing to her feet with a struggle. "You're...really pissing me off...and it's been awhile since I have been...guh..." As she finally stood, her black bangs covering her right eye, she glared. "This isn't what you think it is...look around you...you've almost killed your fellow teammates with this form...I may not know as much as you about these forms...but I do know that you're not the dark using type...that's my job..." She smirked a bit from the thought, and panted, hitting one knee again.

"...I...J-Jamie...y-you...don't...under...stand..." I shook. She noticed this and blinked, struggling to get to her feet again. "...Me...philes...is...taking over...me...you...gotta stop...him..." But before Jamie could even say anything smart in return, I had already flickered away with Chaos Control, nowhere to be traced, not even with extreme senses.

"This isn't good.." And with that, Jamie hit her knees once again, watching as I disappeared, then glanced toward the team, who had just woken up from the attack...they also wondered where I had gone this time. They would now have to search all over the world if they wanted to find me.

With one final flicker of Chaos Control, the feet of my human self had stumbled and scurried through thick forests, large mountain trails, and scorching deserts. Many many days went by. I had failed my team. Failed them like I knew I would. Winds of cold had blown against my body, and several branches from overhanging trees scratched into my clothes and skin, leaving deep cuts. I didn't care about the pain. I only cared...about how much I had left behind during those years of my life. Being transformed into something fictional was something that didn't sound like me. I never wanted anything to happen to my friends, yet I was the one who brought it upon them.

How could I do this? How could I go to the Dark Form and harm my team, let alone my family? It wasn't fair. It just wasn't. Now my friends are healing once again from my attacks, and Mephiles wants my head for a hood ornament. With all this power inside me...it wouldn't be too long before I had destroyed everything that I loved and cared for. But with Knuckles and the others...I wonder what they had to really say about my situation. Sooner or later they would remember, but when was the question.

Not too long later, packs of dirt and mud hit under my feet. I looked down to see that my feet had come into contact with a barren but wet land, and attatched to it was none other than Eggman's base. The old one. I knew where I was. Africa. Exactly where Sonic said Eggman had hidden the newest machine...and where I first transformed. Sonic took me here at my own request. This is where I made my mistake. But...

"Where are the trees...all of the rainforest...is gone..." My eyes were wide, glancing around at the missing tree stumps and branches. This wasn't normal. This was an attack on purpose...but for what?

My steps led me into the old base...where everything had changed. Especially the machine that transformed me. It...was destroyed. Bits and pieces all scrapped onto the floor. This was such a bad thing...so how could I make things better?

I couldn't think of this answer yet...due to another sight in the base that shocked me...wires and circuits were seen flickering in the next room. Lights were dim, and wires were all over the floor. The voice was familiar as well.

"Hehehehehe...with this new creation...that brat, Lauren will have no choice but to submit her Solaris power to me..." Those gleaming sunglasses. He couldn't be making what I thought he was.

Those bright green robotic eyes shining on the ceiling above the man...was way too obvious to know...that my power would soon be released at its fullest...


	14. Chapter 14

Lauren the Echidna Volume 3

Chapter 14

Psychic Reset

Her long black hair had flown through the winds of Japan. Looking around all the small huts and buildings of Tokyo, Ashleigh had walked past many people. Most had looked to her with disgust, since they knew she was a friend of mine, and was already known around the world. She knew she had to ignore it, but with her own nature, it was hard too forget the people who insulted her. With all these people around, there were still a few who didn't see her as a threat. A few younger kids with paper, notepads and pens ran up to her with delight, hoping to get her autograph for what they saw in the news against Weed.

She was a bit shocked. Ashleigh didn't ever think that kids would even ask for her autograph, due to her belief that her power was more dangerous than she thought. If she had fought Weed any longer, her power would've been hard to stop. Good thing she had gotten distracted from it by helping me out or things would've gotten horrible.

Ashleigh told the children she'd be happy to sign their notepads and papers, then sent them on their way, watching as they showed their parents and friends what they had just gotten. This made Ashleigh smile proudly. Why would most people think that she was a threat? It wasn't like... well yes it could be, since she had been hanging around a being that could hold a god inside them. She really had no choice but to ignore the threats and take in the positive energy around her, since it was also her specialty.

A few blocks down from the scene was a group of people gathered around a small site of what looked like construction. Ashleigh noticed this in an instant and also saw that it wasn't going to be easy trying to see from the back of the crowd. She quickly ran into the shadows, transformed to her white cat self and sprang up to the top of a tall building with intense silence, finally able to see what the commotion was all about. The locals had spotted someone lying on the ground, seeming to have a faint aura seeping around them. Ashleigh looked closer and her eyes slightly widened to the sight.

That "creature" laying on the ground was a small cat, adorned with a beautiful ocean blue color, which was odd for the average cat, and behind its ears looked like small horns that were a pale pink color. Ashleigh blinked for a moment, then narrowed her eyes, sensing something from the future before it was able to happen.

Screaming was seen in her vision, screaming and running from all the locals around the country. Ashleigh's eyes quickly opened after seeing a faint image of the enemy that was to come. She was going to be attacked soon and she had to get everyone away from that cat. Ashleigh's quick cat reflexes caused her to land perfectly onto her feet as she startled everyone that was around the site. Everyone stood back after seeing the odd anthropomorphic creature with their own eyes, but soon came to disgust as most of them weren't the biggest fans of what has been happening all over the world the past few weeks. Ashleigh stood her ground as she spoke loud enough for them to hear,

"Listen everybody! You have to leave this place NOW! It's not safe for you!"

There was silence. At first no one had believed her, knowing it was just a cat lying there, so it couldn't have done anything. Ashleigh then glared at them, letting them know that she meant business. They finally scurried away, at the very moment that a huge burst of blue light had shown behind Ashleigh from the cat that was alone on the ground. Her eyes widened, but with her quick reflexes she backflipped onto a nearby street sign, having complete and easy balance as she stood upon it with the help of her tail.

The aura of blue had formed into a hedgehog, but this time, the form was...different. This was once again a clone of Mephiles, but it was the only female clone from the entire group. Her spines were floating backward like Mephiles', but was pulled back into a ponytail, with two quills hanging down on both sides of her face, dark blue stripes had been seen on her quills, the edges of them glowing like the ocean on a summer night and her gloves were glowing white continuously. Her eyes were the same dark blue, as well as the outfit she wore on her hedgehog body. The outfit was nothing but a hooker look, two piece leather suit, the top piece looked as if it was tied together toward the front, so if untied, cleavage would be seen clearly, and the bottom piece were cut off up to the rim of her hip. This outlook was very skimpy for a hedgehog like her, but apparently she did not care. Ashleigh's eyes blinked, looking toward the outfit in disgust.

The enemy in front of her laughed out loud, seeing the sudden judgement in her eyes.

"Ahahahaha! My my... if it isn't the little pipsqueak kitty cat. You saved me the trouble of looking for you, my dear." She smirked, waving a hand in front of her and onto her chin. "Looks like this will be quite the challenge."

"What do you want from me?" Ashleigh shouted in anger.

"Don't you know by now? Master Mephy wants the Chaos Emeralds that your little pathetic group has. Only two left, my dear." She smirked more, hands beginning to cover in water.

This alone was enough for Ashleigh to think up a plan, knowing that her enemy was using water, she could hone her psychic power to turn it against her.

"Oh forgive me for being rude, my dear, but I haven't even told you my name. Hmhmhm..."  
"Then what is it..."

"Hmhm... my name.. is TORRENT!"

Torrent quickly raised her hands to the sky. The ground began to shake hard enough to where Ashleigh would lose her balance, followed by several jets of water bursting forth from the ground that were being pulled up from the sewers below the surface. The jets formed around Torrent, seeming to create a large water barrier around each part of her body. Ashleigh was stunned, having been too shocked to even see the next attack coming. Torrent smirked and laughed evilly, thrusting her arms forward as many tendrils of water that seemed sharper than the sharpest glass had fired toward her.

Even Ashleigh's cat like reflexes hadn't been enough for this move. The first few were easy to dodge, since there were only smaller in number, but as she back flipped onto another street sign, many more that were behind the first assault had come her way. Ashleigh placed her hands apart and slammed them together in a clap, emitting a huge psychic wave of energy to rid her being of the next few tendrils. But it seemed as if she had missed one. One last, but big tendril that she overlooked had nicked her right across her left hip, leaving a gash beneath her skirt. She grunted from the gash, holding her hip as she stepped back a bit to pay attention to Torrent's next move.

"I assumed you'd be a lot tougher than this, kitty cat! Oh.. but you're not just a kitty cat are you? You're just a pathetic human! Ahahahaha!" She laughed proudly with a hand under her chin. As she spoke, Ashleigh was only getting even angrier by the second. Torrent held her hand forward, forming yet another powerful attack in her hand, but this time it was just an orb. But this wasn't ordinary. The orb began to absorb the water around them... from the air! Since she had this advantage, Torrent knew this was her time to finish Ashleigh off.

Torrent threw the small orb toward Ashleigh with so much speed and force, it was hard for Ashleigh to even bring up a barrier, but did it just in time to block the orb from hitting its target. She knew it was too much, so she flipped to her left, but upon her landing, she flinched. That wound on her hip was still giving her pain that she could hardly handle. Ashleigh wasn't ready to give it up yet.

She thrusts her arms forward once again, but this time, the sleeves on her arms had extended slightly, enough for objects to be placed inside. The objects that were thrown were none other than the average psychic's fortune cards, their edges as sharp as the tendrils that were thrown earlier. Torrent only smirked to this,

"You must be joking.. those puny cards of yours cannot harm me!" She laughed and waved her hand across the barrier, watching as the cards stopped only a foot into the barrier and dropping to the ground, dead in their tracks. Ashleigh was shocked once again, holding her hip as she stood to her feet. How could she defeat this enemy? There was no way she could even weaken her. But as she was thinking about her own fate away from the world, a sudden blur of bright teal green had flown past her.

His spines flew from side to side as the wind blew against him, and his two back quills flew upwards and he came to a stop in front of an electric sign that spelled the words 'Tokyo Cafe.' It was none other than Silver the Hedgehog, coming to aid Ashleigh in her lost hope of defeating Torrent. Silver smirked as he pulled the sign from its post, circuits from the plugging, giving anything a small shock as the sparks flew, and chucked it with all his telekinetic might into the barrier of Torrent's barrier. The shock was even greater, but enough to get Torrent onto the ground, the barrier still intact.

"Ngh... Silver! Now's your chance! Weaken that barrier with those!" She pointed toward a nearby spa, as there were pieces of coal that had just been placed into the hot springs around the building. Silver smirked to this and raised as many pieces of the coal as he could, tossing them one by one, having the steamy hot surface of them heating up the water and weakening Torrent's power and being. She hit the ground onto her knees and growled fiercely, the heat starting to get to the leather clothing she had on, burning off one of the straps, making it hang down showing a bit of cleavage.

"GAH! YOU LITTLE BASTARDS! THIS WAS MY FAVORITE OUTFIT!" Her glare got even darker as she felt several more psychic fortune cards sweeping by her even quicker, nicking her here and there, leaving smaller gashes but ones that stung more than a paper cut.

Torrent then smirked once more, raising her hands to the skies around Tokyo, forming more water from both the air and the sewers, suddenly shaping the liquids into one of Sonic's greatest enemies.. Perfect Chaos. Its watery tentacles were then raised even higher, causing it to block out the sunlight above and the shape changed again, but this time into a giant mace. Torrent smirked as she snapped, forcing the artificial monster to swing down onto Ashleigh. She screamed in horror, but was quickly swept up by Silver's arms and holding her bridal style. Silver finally set her down where she would be safe, looking back toward Torrent with a frown on his face, teeth grit.

"Damn... we're gonna need an extra hand.." He reached into the cloak pocket that was still on him, and pulled out a golden and sparkling ring, tossing it upward and opening a portal. What flew in from the ring was nothing Ashleigh would've expected in this time of need, but remembered his power after seeing his outlook.

This anthropomorphic creature was a monkey. His brown hair was hanging over his two blue eyes and being held up by a golden ring around his forehead. With his trusty cloud to ride around on and his long red cape flowing in the wind, Ashleigh knew exactly who it was.

"Monkey Kahn!" Her smile went wide. Glad to see someone from her favorite comics during her past times was indeed an honor other than Silver.

Kahn had looked back to her, blinking to see an anthropomorphic creature like him, but looked again to see Silver the Hedgehog, the Time Traveler, and Torrent, ready to strike again. Kahn smirked, knowing where he stood in this battle, and spoke,

"I'm normally far too chivalrous to hit a girl, but I'm not quite sure you count." Monkey Kahn's held up his staff, both ends with a diamond shaped object on the ends, and conjured up loads of electricity that he got from electric signs around the town and held it toward Torrent with confidence. Torrent wasn't pleased, with another swing of the mace, she had barely missed Kahn as he dove down at the barrier, having supercharged his staff to its fullest.

"What? No... NO NO NO! AAAAAGH!" The shock was even greater than what Silver had tried, leaving Torrent hitting the ground, powerless and paralyzed. Monkey Kahn landed on his two feet and slammed his staff beside him, smirking from a job well done. Torrent grunted, attempting to move her head up to Kahn,

"Y-Y-You... you'll... p-pay... for this... all of you will... and that girl.. will belong to Master Mephiles... F-FOREVER!" She smirked again, dissipating into water drops on the ground, them soon drying up after.

At first they were worried, but Ashleigh stood to her feet, after letting the gash heal a bit, and smirked.

"If she thinks that there's gonna be trouble with Lauren... she has another thing comin'." Ashleigh looked to Silver and Monkey Kahn and her smirk turned into a smile. "So.. thank you guys for helping me out."  
"It was my pleasure, m'lady." Said Kahn with a bow, being polite as a king would be. Silver nodded and put a hand on her shoulder,

"Yeah.. if we're to be prepared for this last battle with Mephiles, we should just be prepared for the worst. I don't think that will be a problem, though. With each of us at Lauren's side, we'll defeat him no problem." Silver replied.

"Just fill me in on who that is and what's been going on before I was so interrupted in fighting the Iron Dominion." Kahn's eyebrow raised on one side and Silver chuckled nervously, placing a hand behind his head.

The explanation went on to help Monkey Kahn catch up with all the problems at hand. But what was to come with the other team members? What will they have to face against to get closer to getting to me and Mephiles? Only time would tell...


	15. Chapter 15

Lauren the Echidna Volume 3

Chapter 15

Flame Run

No one knew the real power of the hedgehog of flames. Pure flames were hard to control back in the day, since they were controlled by the gods themselves. But this particular fire was...odd. Odd enough that it was a fire that hasn't been used for years. The purest fire that was able to be conjured up was only by the purest of heart. Those with a good heart were able to get this fire at its hottest and most beautiful.

Scorch was that particular hedgehog. Also known as Jeff on our team of heroes, he takes his problems and fixes them without causing problems for others. He takes it all in and just lets it go the next minute. No one could tell him otherwise to get him down. It was just Jeff's style. Nobody was going to complain. Not even Ivy. With her at his side, he couldn't even have a problem with anything.

His tennis shoes were hitting the hard and cold grounds of Antarctica, his place of choice for searching. I could've been anywhere. Even on the other side of the Earth, it didn't matter, he chose the coldest place on this planet to continue his search.

Jeff had already transformed himself into Scorch to keep himself warm with his natural aura of pure fire coursing through his veins. This was no problem for him, but searching the wide and vast ice and snowy banks of Antarctica was. All the icebergs, ice sheets that could break at any moment was indeed a trial to behold. Although... it did have it's advantages. With every bit of ice forming around the older icebergs, more and more endurance was seen. Hard to crack and especially hard to melt with fire.

Scorch had no intention of melting anything, but with all due respect, he knew he had to do whatever he needed to do to find me. If anyone was to spot me, they were to let the other members know of my recent whereabouts, even if it meant searching the area thoroughly. He continued is stroll through the thick ice, glancing through the clear blanket of ice, spotting penguins swimming and fish scurrying away to avoid being the penguin's lunch. Scorch just smiled at this, realizing that there was so much life around him, it just made him think that maybe this was a good thing. Becoming something he enjoyed for years he just thought to himself that this wasn't as bad as people think.

About an hour passed from searching and Scorch was about to get slightly worried. How could I be in one spot, then quickly become in another in an instant without staying still? It wasn't like I was going to try and fight them yet. In my state, I was only able to take orders from no one. Not even Mephiles. But no one really knew what I was up to. Mephiles did though. He had found a way to keep his eyes on me no matter what it took, hoping to have Solaris' power for himself once more and not make the mistake of not destroying me when he had the chance before he ruined my future.

Scorch came upon a gigantic iceberg that was almost shaped like a mountain rather than clattered ice. He 'hmm'ed. This wasn't natural for ice to form a mountain unless it was...carved that way.

"This can't be good..." He said under his frosty breath.

The ice from under a somewhat large door had started to crack, heading straight for Scorch. With his quick thinking he jumped aside, dodging the cracks that led straight into the icy cold water. He looked back toward the door and saw a figure. That of a pure ice looking hedgehog. His entire body was nothing but light blue ice, as if every organ in his body was created from the purest of ice. Scorch's eyes narrowed, not knowing the hedgehog, but having heard of one of the clones with ice based abilities.

"Well... well.. well... looks like the fire ant has come to play a game..." His voice was lower than before, but this time, was a bit scarier.

"Who are you..." Scorch asked as his hands began to emerge with fire.

"You have not heard of me...? How pathetic that the purest of fire hasn't heard of the purest of ice... my name is Arctic.. the clone and Master of Ice..." He was indeed different. Arctic's eyes were now lime green, piercing enough to shatter his own ice, but only if he needed to. Scorch growled to this, but knew that this would be a challenge.

"But if you haven't seen my power.... perhaps I should show you..." Artic's eyes widened with a smirk on his face, hoping to strike fear, but Scorch wasn't affected. As the icy hedgehog stepped forward, both his arms rose up from his sides and into the air. The mountain behind him began to rumble and shake, as if an earthquake had reached the lowest part of the world in an instant.

Scorch's eyes widened, as he spotted spires of pure ice, firing up from the tip of the mountain and raining down toward him. He 'hmph'ed and threw he hands backward, ablazing them with red and yellow flames, forcing huge blazes of it at the spires, melting a good portion of them. Little did Scorch know til the last minute, there were still a few spires that had survived the blazing wind and were heading straight for him, faster and sharper than the last bit of rain. Scorch had no time to get away, but he had a slight hunch that something was about to distill this attack.

Indeed he was right. In a blur of pink and light blue, a spinning orb with a very familiar yellow and red hammer and been caught into the assault and sliced through the remainder of the spires as if it was child's play. The hedgehog landed and turned toward her saved victim, Scorch, and smiled.

"Looks like we have a new player on the field, huh?" Her smile was familiar to everyone on the team, but Scorch just let out a chuckle to seeing a now real character of Mobius standing in front of him.

"Amy Rose.. you arrived not a moment too soon. Thanks for the help, but I don't think he's through yet." Scorch pointed ahead and noticed that Arctic was growling at the sight of Amy getting in the way of his target.

"Do not think this is over! Titan Of Ice! Make your appearance grand and intimidating.. rise and destroy these pests for Master Mephiles!" Grounds around them began to shake more violently, almost causing Amy to lost balance, but only to be caught by Scorch who was standing nearby. Arctic's eyes narrowed in anger, but his smirk grew greatly. "Let us see how you deal with this!" With his arms raised high, the ice all around Arcitc began to move. It was like it had a mind of its own, but that wasn't the case.

Ice began to form into what seemed like legs, then arms, then a torso and a head to fit on the top. The Ice Titan of the South had emerged from the grounds of Antarctica, and with a vengance. Scorch stood forward after realizing he was still holding onto Amy, and cleared his throat.

"We need to get rid of this thing now... there's no telling what he could do to this place.." Amy nodded in agreement, and dashed forward just to be first in action, like her beloved Sonic would do any day. Amy raises her hammer, shouting a short battle cry, then swinging it down with mighty force as usual, but found her hammer to be in the foot of the titan, but no shattering or cracking was heard.

Before she could think twice, she noticed the titan's foot had encased her hammer in ice completely, but had also captured her hand in ice in an instant. Amy tried to pull free, no luck was found and was sure to see herself as a hedgesicle in a matter of seconds. Scorch wasted no time in this next feat. He thrusted his arms and fists forward, sending a huge lance of lightning all around the titan's walking boundaries. Amy glanced around in shock, wondering why would Scorch want to attack while she was trapped. His voice quickly shouted iGet out of there/i, and Amy was freed from her entrapment from the erupting fire around her.

Amy dodged through the fire before Scorch took it to another level, and was found next to Scorch, rubbing her hand to help warm it back up. Scorch then clenched his fists, smirking at his next thought, and threw his arms up as if in victory, watching as blazing walls of fire had engulfed the monster of ice in fire so hot, it could melt the purest ice.

Perhaps this would be a good idea, since Scorch's heart was as pure as the heat of the fire he used, but it wasn't good enough. The titan had indeed had half of his body here and there melted to where it woulnd't be reformed, but Scorch and Amy's eyes both widened to see that it had already regenerated its arm, leg and the other half of its torso in just a second.

"Well, that's definitely not good..." Scorch began as he panted from using so much of his firey aura. Arctic was not amused at the moment. His arm was thrusted forward after the titan had recovered and forced it to fire many more of the spires from earlier in the fight, but sharper and faster than before. Amy urged Scorch to dodge left while she dodged right, and he agreed.

With so many of the spires hitting the ground, they stayed in their place, creating an impaling ground of spikes that could pierce through anything when touched. Amy and Scorch had been dodging left and right as much as they could, but found themselves leaping off the risen icebergs in the water nearby to keep themselves airborne so they wouldn't get inmpaled.

Amy looked to Scorch then the titan where her hammer was still stuck, but just smirked after hearing Scorch's next idea,

"Amy! Time for the FastBall! Let's scorch his ass to the ground!" Scorch had leaped once more off a nearby iceberg and over Amy's head, already albazing himself with lightning and fire at one time. Amy leaped once more with great speed and held her hand out, summoning a hammer to her hand once more, having and endless supply and reached it back slowly. After a few seconds of preparation, Amy finally forced her hammer forward, slamming Scorch as a flaming fireball down toward the titan. With its arms raised to attempt and block, the two arms of the titan were already burnt to a melting and watery state.

Arctic shouted no to this and growled more, beginning to step back, knowing he was under the defeat of the purest of fire. He slightly turned and began to head for the tunnel of his base, but was of course blocked by the pink hedgehog, who was wearing a set of light blue winter clothes with a bit of a spunky twist. Arctic grunted and stopped, while he turned back around to see that Scorch had already pummeled through the titan's head with even hotter flames, forcing the titan to fall, defeated.

Scorch's spinning began to slow, but was still fast enough to hit even a supersonic boom, and created a visual of fire around a single fist as he spun. Arctic knew this was his moment to try and escape, but found a fist to the forehead, fire blazing around them, causing a slight explosion of fire and lightning that engulfed the area. Amy wasn't harmed during this process, since she had barricaded herself behind the entrance of the base. After that small explosion of fire, Scorch was seen for a split second, but had suddenly deformed back to his human self, hitting one knee and panting, staring at the puddle that was once Arctic.

Amy ran up to Jeff and would help him to his feet, but noticed that he was human. "Wait.. you're human too? How is that possible?" She wondered. Jeff smiled to her and just let out a sigh of relief.

"It's.. complicated...but I know someone who can explain it better than I can. Heh.. let's get out of here..." But before he could finish his sentence and teleport them out, he stopped. Looking toward the top of the same icy mountain... was a figure. A familiar one at that. His eyes narrowed behind those glasses of his, and he just kept quiet for a moment. Amy looked to where he was staring and blinked, seeing the same thing,

"...What do you see?" She asked with a stare.

"Just... a friend in need..." His eyes narrowed slightly, knowing exactly who he had saw up on the mountain top.

With those flowing dreadlocks from side to side, suddenly forming back into long hair, the dark form of what was once one of his friends, has turned out to be spying on each of the members, hoping to have some plan to bring them down.

Jeff was sure what he had to do next.. letting the rest of the team know about my whereabouts...wherever it may have been...


	16. Chapter 16

Lauren the Echidna Volume 3

Chapter 16

If Music Was Power

"Ooooh, I can hear the ocean..." Said the girl with a fur coat of light blue.

Nicky, who had transformed into her hedgewolf state, was roaming the warmer parts of the world, searching for the perfect seashell to take with her on her short trip. Since there was just vast oceans and long stretches of the beach, Nicky really could just stand in one spot and search with just her eyes. Without proper orders to search elsewhere, she just chose the warmth of the beach just to mess around like any random girl of the Missouri state would do. Nicky smiled as her blue eyes met with the conch shell and its beauty of peach and brown paint.

Placing it in a bag that was around her waist, she continued her walk across the sunsetting beauty of the ocean, constantly stopping to feel the wind around her. After an hour of walking, she finally reached the end of the beach, that seemed to had settled further into a sewage dump. Her eyes blinked then narrowed slightly after seeing the wretched garbage that was being dumped into the ocean. Her keen senses kicked in as her fluffy ears twitched as the wind blew around her. Nicky could hear the ocean's waves crashing onto the shore under her boots, but that wasn't what bothered her.

Seeing the workers at the power plant nearby dumping digusting garbage into the ocean had gotten her riled up. She took a few more steps forward toward the sewege dump, but was suddenly stopped in her tracks by screeching laughter that seemed psycho at the same time. Nicky turned around, seeing the yellow aura of the clone that would seal the fate of the ocean.

"Blitz..." Nicky scowled at the hedgehog as his long quills were surging with yellow and blue lightning. Screeching laughter was heard again. Blitz knew that she was already teeming with a slight fear inside her.

"HEEHEHEHEHEE! WELL, WELL! Looks like I've hit the jackpot haven't I? Hehehehe... mountains of garbage as far as the eye can see!" His flickering body was behind Nicky in an instant. She whipped herself around and stepped back, trying to think of whether to high tail it out of there or think of something... fast.

"I'm not scared of you, you light bulb." She smirked slightly, knowing it would get his attention. Blitz just blinked once, then started to laugh again. What cunning insults, he thought, but what if he silence her for a moment. That would work.

"Some insult, my dear! Heeheehee... but not good enough I'm afraid." His hands circled around his head in two, one by one passing his eyes, as if he was conjuring up energy. With all the power at that plant, he had surpassed the usual watt bulb, the power generator, and now even the energy from lightning itself. Bolts of electricity had pounded around him, each with a solid BOOM effect as if it struck a boulder. Nicky couldn't help but jump back from a few strikes, but stood firm and ready, waiting for an opening.

"GET A LOAD OF THIS, GIRL! HEEHEEHEHEHE!" His screeching laugh was louder. Blitz opened his mouth wide and it looked like a megaphone, firing giant rings of lightning that sparked like a fire. Chunks of sand and dense dirt from underneath were hurled, along with patches of water thrown in the mix to create muddy bombs of sand.

Nicky was dodging left and right, trying to get a good lock on him, since precision was her strongest point. Sadly, her only vision in the lockdown was that of a figure in the background. A swooping sound of a motor had gone by Blitz and Nicky, swiping Nicky up and away from the assault. Blitz stopped, watching as water, mud, and sand had rained on top of him from the vibrations and covering him entirely.

The motor had died down to a spatting mutter. Nicky's eyes opened to find herself hugging the one being who she had dreamed of seeing in real life from the Sonic universe. Red eyes were glaring toward the hedgehog across from them. This was no ordinary hedgehog. He took the sight of Sonic for the more dumber eyes, but as she could tell, his fur was black and spines were pointed upward with red stripes adorning them. Nicky's eyes widened to seeing this hedgehog, a wide smile coming across her face.

"It's about time short circuit your ass... into the next dime-" But as his voice raised, he heard a sudden scream behind him, and feeling a tight grip of a hug around his small body. "UGH! ...Wh-What the...hm?" He looked down to see that Nicky had already fallen off his motorcylce with him onto the sand, constantly cuddling with her favorite hedgehog. He blinked and struggled to get up, but Nicky had him grasped tightly. Something even HE couldn't escape from.

"...I knew coming out here to her was a bad idea...hm? Hey, kid... eyes alert." As he was finally released and given a moment of breath, he stood to his feet as Nicky did the same, watching as Blitz had turned around with a finger pointing to them.

"YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? I'LL MAKE SURE YOU BOTH DIE LAUGHING! HEEHEHEHEHEHEEE!" Blitz was enraged. Being covered in his own doing of an attack would anger anyone. Every piece of sand and mud was blown off in one fell swoop as huge pillars of lightning had risen from the ground around them, causing the very balance of nature around them to bend into his will. Shadow had to act fast. He turned to Nicky, who was still staring at the garbage that was rising up out of the ground and blinked, finally realizing that he was looking at her.

"Quick. Use that guitar of yours to give me power."

"Oh, but you think that's a good idea? Because I was thinkin'-" Shadow interrupted her by grabbing her hand.

"Would you COME ON?" He jumped into the air, letting a blast of lightning go past them at a blinding speed. Nicky blinked and yelped in surprise, but knew that she had to be serious to get rid of Blitz and get this ocean back to normal. There was already muddy water all around them, soon to be flooding the city nearby. Nicky finally knew that this was her time to fix things. Shadow let her hand go and allowed her to land on a pier nearby, himself standing in front of that said pier, taking off his inhibitor rings off his wrists and ankles.

Blitz wasn't done yet. He whipped around several of the pillars of lightning and smirked wide. "HEEHEHEHEHE! YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME! YOU'RE TOO SLOW!" His voice was so booming, it would shatter the ear drum on contact, but these two had other plans. Shadow lept into the air, a bright red aura emnating from his body and seeping into the area. Nicky, with her hands raised high, had summoned her electric guitar to her grip. With the sparks of blue, pink, yellow and white, she began to play a song that had benefit the hedgehog greatly.

Several riffs to a dropped C tone had begun this song. With several more riffs getting harder and harder, more of them pausing here and there to make the song fit. It was definitely a song worth playing for Shadow, since it had been his main theme song for his only video game. "I Am All of Me" was the name of the song. It's hard rock feel to the guitar played by the hedgewolf master of music had given Shadow all the power he needed.

Shadow's eyes had turned blood red, as well as all the markings of red on his body, including spines, arms, legs and the soles of his skates. He was ready for the ultimate attack. In the blink of an eye, Blitz found himself being knocked from side to side, punch after punch kick after kick, finally being slammed into the ground with a punch so powerful, it could shatter the galaxy. Blitz growled and fired two more pillars of lightning from his hands, this time more piercing than before.

"I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET! HEEHEHEHEHE! BITCHEEEES, YOU'RE THROUGH!" His eyes had surged with nothing but lightning, obscuring his body with bolts, zig zagged all around. His arms disappeared into nothing but sparks of lightning, leaving his hands attatched to them and legs the same way. You could say his entire body was nothing but pure electricity. His being grew as well. Blitz size had doubled.. no tripled the size of a normal titan. The same laugh covered the lands and he sucked out every bit of electricity in the surrounding area. But this did not last too long.

Nicky continued the song with a smirk on her face, waiting to play the main chorus of the epic song. "Almost there, Shadow! But I think I should join the fun!" After a few more seconds, the song had reached its climax. With the echo of the chorus still ringing in their heads, it was all they needed to deliver the final blows to Blitz and his rage upon the beach.

Both the hedgehog and the hybrid joined hands, first being Shadow to attack. Nicky spun him around with speed not yet seen in Sonic's eyes other than his own and tossed him down onto Blitz's head. Shadow's hands spread out and he grabbed a hold of the pointed ears. He then flipped forward, tossing the titan over his head with strength so great, it caused a short earthquake around them. Blitz growled in pain, not knowing one could have such strength, but his lightning shot eyes had widened in fear as he saw Nicky taking her hedgehog side and spindashing a kick right onto his chest, causing a huge wave of what looked like music notes and bars to fuse into him and wrap around his neck. Blitz gagged and wanted to throw up, but as he grabbed onto the musical bars, his body began to shrink. Back to his original shape, Blitz gagged once more before he was completely out of tune with his voice.

The yellow on his body had turned gray, slowly draining him of his power. Shadow walked up to the menace and smirked, bringing down his fist onto the clone's chest once more, shattering his outer shell, revealing nothing but surging circuits and wires. Nicky looked closer and blinked, jumping slightly.

"The clone's a robot? B-But I thought.."

"Seems like they all are... but most don't show it."

"So the clones we've fought so far are just... robots?" Nicky looked to Shadow.

"Sadly, yes. I'm sure your team mates are doing the same thing with another robotic clone. But I'm afraid I have more bad news..."

"What's that?"

Shadow looked to her and narrowed his eyes,

"They're copying each one of you."

Nicky gasped slightly, her mouth gaping open. This wasn't good. If the "clones" were copying all their abilities, they would be able to counter anything that was thrown at them.

"I have to warn the others..."

But with that exit, Blitz had just faded into the ground.

Whatever was really going on... it was only a matter of time before the others were being copied by the other robot clones...


End file.
